{"id":2636,"date":"2026-08-14T10:04:03","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T10:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2636"},"modified":"2026-08-14T10:04:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T10:04:03","slug":"legendary-coach-makes-almost-impossible-claim-about-alex-eala-as-roger-federer-comparison-dismissed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2636","title":{"rendered":"Legendary coach makes \u2018almost impossible\u2019 claim about Alex Eala as Roger Federer comparison dismissed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Serena Williams<\/a>\u2019 former coach Rick Macci believes Alex Eala was \u201cincorrectly\u201d taught as a junior when working on her serve.<\/p>\n

Eala<\/a> is arguably the hottest property in tennis right now, as an army of fans follow her every move amid her ascent up the rankings.<\/p>\n

After winning the Washington Open, in what was her first WTA Tour<\/a> title, the 21-year-old has cracked the top 20 for the first time, but the youngster is not done yet.<\/p>\n

However, many believe that if she wants to win a Grand Slam, she needs to improve her serve, which ranks outside of the top 50 for aces and first and second serve win percentage.<\/p>\n

Rennae Stubbs initially said that the 21-year-old could not win a major<\/a> but after her triumph in Washington, the Australian has softened that view. Moreover, Andy Roddick has outlined why the left-hander\u2019s serve<\/a> is trickier to deal with than meets the eye.<\/span><\/p>\n

More Alex Eala News<\/h2>\n

Alex Eala: Serena Williams\u2019 coach highlights \u2018tennis etiquette\u2019 issue with Filipina\u2019s fans<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Alex Eala: Tennis icon names WTA star more likely to win first Grand Slam before Filipina<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Want more from Tennis365? Add us as\u00a0<\/span>a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But Macci<\/a>, who has trained five No 1 ranked players in Roddick, Serena, Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova, and Jennifer Capriati, is not so complimentary.<\/p>\n

The 71-year-old thinks it will be \u201calmost impossible\u201d to change Eala\u2019s serve until the off season, her delivery needs big changes to improve it, and she doesn\u2019t use her legs enough.<\/p>\n

Roger Federer<\/a> was praised for having such a smooth and technically sound serve but Macci thinks Eala is a long way from that.<\/p>\n

He wrote on Instagram<\/a> this week, \u201cAlmost impossible to change Eala\u2019s serve \u2019till the off season. This is heavy-duty, in-depth reconstructive surgery, all science-based with a biomechanist.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny tip, suggestion, tweak or change is a band-aid. She is smooth, relaxed, and flowing but was taught incorrectly as a junior when growing [up].<\/p>\n

\u201cNumber one culprit on the WTA Tour, the leg drive does not initiate racquet entry at the proper time. If you do millions of anything, it will get better, but the timing will never be like Federer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Macci took to social media to say that if Eala can get \u201cbiomechanical help\u201d on her serve<\/a>, it is time to fasten your seatbelts with the Filipina.<\/p>\n

While he is critical of her serve, the American tennis coach did laud her \u201clethal\u201d groundstrokes, calling her the \u201cPhilippine Machine\u201d. All eyes will be on Eala as she begins her Cincinnati Open campaign ahead of this year\u2019s US Open.<\/span><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Alex Eala and Aryna Sabalenka going in different directions in tennis rankings<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Legendary coach makes \u2018almost impossible\u2019 claim about Alex Eala as Roger Federer comparison dismissed<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Serena Williams\u2019 former coach Rick Macci believes Alex Eala was \u201cincorrectly\u201d taught as a junior when working on her serve. Eala is arguably the hottest property in tennis right now, as an army of fans follow her every move amid her ascent up the rankings. After winning the Washington Open, in what was her first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2636\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}