Sachia Vickery’s tennis dreams were ignited at a young age. Inspired by watching Serena and Venus Williams dominate on television, Vickery boldly declared to her mother, Paula Liverpool, at just 5 and a half years old that she was destined to become the “next Serena Williams.” From that moment on, tennis became Vickery’s life goal, setting her on a path to chase greatness. However, the young Sachia faced various financial obstacles that hindered her dream of becoming a successful tennis player. Amid the bleakness came sunshine through Williams sisters’ father, King Richard.
Sachia Vickery, a former USTA junior national champion, showed signs of prowess on-court early on in her career. However, struggles with finances tried to pull her down. She once admitted, “I was stuck for a while at that 150 kind of ranking for a few years, so it’s definitely a big hurdle for me to get a break into the top hundred.” But Sachia Vickery, who once trained at the IMG Academy, found a step closer to her dream when she started taking coaching from Serena Williams’ father in Miami.
Richard Willams, renowned for guiding his daughters to success, helped Vickery push her limits to the maximum. Describing her experience, she once stated, “I used to train with [him] when I was younger and he’s a really good mentor. I see him occasionally. Because I live in Florida and sometimes I go down there to practice with him. Just occasionally. But I haven’t seen him in a while.”
Juggling responsibilities, Paula Liverpool, a paralegal and flight attendant with a background in high school track from her native Guyana, dedicated herself to raising Sachia as a single mom and nurturing her tennis dreams. Their journey began on public courts, and by the time Vickery turned 12, her talent secured her a spot at the prestigious Patrick Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in France. There, Sachia Vickery trained herself for many years.
Eventually, after reaching a career-high ITF Junior ranking of No. 6 in the world, she turned pro in 2011. However, her financial challenges did not end. As she herself admitted, “At that point, everything you make goes right back into your career.” But even amid everything, Vickery showed promising results. And this made her receive compliments from ‘King Richard’ himself, further inspiring her to be better on-court.
Richard Williams, who was impressed by little Vickery’s performance, that once in 2008, he told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that she is “the next Venus or Serena on the way.” Rightly so, the Florida-born tennis pro soon broke barriers in tennis, just like her former coach Richard’s daughters Serena and Venus Williams’ did. How? Her tremendous progress in tennis made her one of the most prominent American women tennis players in the world. And Vickery enjoyed the comparisons as well.
She once said, “It’s great to be compared with Serena obviously. She’s like the greatest of all-time.” However, she further added, “She’s the reason I started playing tennis. I don’t even think I deserve to be mentioned in the same category as her. I’m just going to worry about being me first.” As she progresses toward her upcoming tournament, the valuable lessons that she learned from Richard Williams will always push her to earn more success on-court.
