Carlos Alcaraz fine-tunes his serve | ATP Tour

Wimbledon

Alcaraz fine-tunes his serve

The Spaniard fired 16 aces against Tiafoe in the third round of Wimbledon

July 06, 2024

When Carlos Alcaraz completed his comeback against Frances Tiafoe in the third round of Wimbledon, stopping the clock at three hours and 50 minutes, the match statistics showed that the Spaniard had fired 16 aces, hitting his fastest serve at 217 kilometres per hour and averaging 187 kilometres per hour throughout the match. The numbers don’t lie: the 21-year-old’s improvement with that shot is more than evident.

“It’s something I’ve improved a lot,” said Alcaraz after securing victory against the American. “For many years, it was the unfinished business I had: trying to improve my serve,” continued the No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings.

Against Tiafoe, in a match full of tight moments, Alcaraz found a lifeline in his serve. As a result, he held on to his serve to get through when things got tough, such as saving a 0-30 deficit at 4-4 in the fourth set, when his opponent was leading 2-1 in sets.

“In situations like today I needed to try to get service points,” Alcaraz said. “My serve was very important, a key factor in my game, in difficult moments,” he added. “The first day I didn’t serve well, but I have been improving it: in the second round it was much better and today, in key moments, the serve saved me from many problems. On grass it is even more important than on many surfaces. I am happy to see that we have improved it, and that we will continue to improve it.”

Alcaraz is a tennis player in constant evolution since he landed on the ATP Tour circuit and has been reaping success after success, including three Grand Slam titles (US Open 2022, Wimbledon 2023, Roland Garros 2024) and No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings.

After identifying a good margin for growth in his serve, and always with the help of his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero, Alcaraz has been looking for solutions to turn that shot into one of the most important in his lineup, especially on surfaces like grass, where the serve takes on a capital importance.

Thus, before the clay court swing, Ferrero made a vital decision: to make a change in the biomechanics of Alcaraz’s serve, which went from making two stops to one when he threw his racket back, helping the Murcian not to lose rhythm when putting the ball in motion.

That variation of the move, which surprised his opponents at Roland Garros, where Alcaraz won his first Mousketeers Cup, is having great effectiveness at Wimbledon, as was demonstrated on Friday against Tiafoe.