Nick Kyrgios's serve
Traced frame by frame from real footage.
Kyrgios's serve is hard to read because every serve looks the same. The toss is low for a tall player, the motion quick and simple, and wide and T serves share the same toss and body movement. He hit 30 aces in the 2022 Wimbledon final.
- 1The motion is compact: the racquet drops and swings up in few, quick positions.
- 2He's fully off the ground at contact, reaching up through the ball.
- 3He lands on the front foot, already falling forward into the court.
Our own observations from the traced frames. Flip through the plate above to check them.
By the numbers
He doesn't toss high and makes contact slightly below the top of the toss, with a very quick wind-up. Overlays of his wide and T serves show the same toss, body movement and contact.
Craig O'Shannessy, Brain Game Tennis, Jul 2022At Indian Wells 2017 against Djokovic, his second serves ranged from 83 to 129 mph, and eleven were faster than Djokovic's first-serve average.
Brain Game Tennis, Jul 20222016: 13.8 aces a match (fourth on tour) and 88.7 % of service games won (fifth).
ATP Beyond the Numbers, Dec 2016 (republished)
Wimbledon 2022 final
He lost to Djokovic 4–6 6–3 6–4 7–6, hitting 30 aces, serving up to 136 mph and throwing in an underarm serve.
AP via NBC NewsWhat you can copy
The copyable idea is sameness: one toss and one motion for every serve, so the returner reads nothing until the ball is struck.
Our reading of O'Shannessy's analysis