BRADENTON, Fla. — Inside of IMG Academy in Bradenton, the partitions are embellished with legends like Serena Williams who, alongside together with her sister Venus, trained at the academy for practically a decade with Nick Bollettieri who based IMG in 1978.
“It’s a dream come true even to just walk on a court that Serena played on, its really special to me,” mentioned Aiko Jackson, a 13-year-old tennis pupil.
Margie Zesinger is head of the Girl’s Tennis Program and mentioned Williams has been an enormous inspiration for a whole lot of her students.
“It has changed the women’s game, Serena, introducing her into the women’s tennis game. We’re teaching girls to be way more athletic. The girls now are hitting the balls a lot harder. She was really the pioneer of power,” mentioned Zesinger.
17-year-old Sofia Lindholm has been at IMG for 5 years and mentioned Serena Williams is her position mannequin. Proving to her that with arduous work, desires do come true.
“Just seeing someone who looks like me and can power through any match is really important and has really affected my life,” mentioned Lindholm.
Williams is about to retire after the U.S Open. She performs Friday at 7 p.m.