Arantxa sanchez vicario academy
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Venus Williams
Although she was temporarily out of tennis competition, Venus continued to work on her game. Her father enrolled Venus and Serena in Ric Macci's tennis academy.
Arantxa sanchez vicario academy
Venus continued to be schooled at home and spent about six hours a day, six days a week practicing tennis. Even though she had officially withdrawn from competition, sports-related manufacturers still expressed an interest in signing her to product endorsement deals if she decided to turn pro.
In October 1994, at the age of 14, Venus made her professional debut at the Bank of the West Classic in Oakland, California. The unranked teen handily defeated Shaun Stafford, a player ranked number 59 in the world. She went on to play the world's secondranked woman player, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, giving the Spaniard a good game before losing.
In an interview with Robin Finn of the New York Times, Stafford said of Venus: "She's going to be great for women's tennis." In joining the pro tour before the end of 1994, W