London, UK
CNN
—
If you’ve ever picked up a tennis racket and attempted to serve against an opponent, you’ll know just how hard a skill it is. It’s one thing to get the ball over the net and yet a whole other thing to even start thinking about speed and accuracy.
It’s a technique that quickly separates the professionals from the amateurs and a skill which has become increasingly important in the modern game.
Nowadays, both men and women are serving faster than ever before, with players regularly reaching service speeds that were once thought to be nearly impossible.
At this year’s Wimbledon, for example, fans witnessed the fastest serve in the tournament’s 148-year history, when Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard unleashed a 153 mph rocket in his first-round match against Taylor Fritz.
Perricard is part of a new breed of players who weaponize their powerful asset to significant effect. The 21-year-old is the current world No. 36 but clearly has the power to one day challenge the very best.
“I’m not doing some special technique to have a big serve or a fast serve. I’m just serving like I’m supposed to do. We don’t train a lot to be honest, this part of my game. But I mean, it came naturally,” he said.
But while Perricard is nonchalant about his superior delivery, there is a science behind what makes his technique so successful.
Former tennis player and sports scientist Mark Kovacs has dedicated years to researching the biomechanics behind a tennis serve.
Speaking to CNN Sports, he breaks down the technique into eight components: The opening stance, the ball toss, the loading, the coiling, the acceleration, the contact, the deceleration and finally, the finish, which is where the player lands.
“You need synchronized motion. You need all of these stages to hit optimally because you get this summation of forces. It’s really called the kinetic chain. You’re trying to optimize your kinetic chain, which means how we use the ground up through the body and out into the ball,” Kovacs said.
Kovacs’ work is all about using research and data to give players that small edge to improve their performance.
He has worked with some of the sport’s biggest servers, including former US player John Isner, who set the ATP-recognized record for the fastest serve in 2016, when he blasted a ball 157.2 mph at his opponent.
While all eight components of the motion are important to maxing out your serving potential, Kovacs says research does point to particular elements which are required to produce a fast serve.
First, there is stage three (the loading), which looks at the player’s body position before making contact. Kovacs says the key here is the player’s back hip, and how quickly it comes through the motion of serving.
Then there is stage five into seven (acceleration, contact and deceleration), which addresses how fast the serving arm moves through the action.
“You hear people talk about a player having a live arm. In the scientific sense, you can actually put a number on that,” he says.
“A lot of coaches will say, ‘That guy’s just got a live arm. That’s why he’s able to serve hard but maybe doesn’t have the best technique.’
“But actually he does have pretty good technique at that position. He may not have great technique everywhere else, but his ability to get his arm in the right position and move through is the second most important correlation for serve speed.”
Albano Olivetti is another current player who uses his huge serve to his advantage. The 33-year-old now focuses mainly on doubles and made it to the second round at this year’s Wimbledon.
While he never made a huge impact in the singles game during his professional career, one particular moment remains etched into the sport’s folklore.
At a Challenger Tour event in 2012, Olivetti unleashed the second fastest serve of all-time, sending a 160 mph rocket at his opponent.
The mark is not officially recognized by the ATP – men’s tennis’ governing body – because it wasn’t performed at an official ATP event, but it remains something Olivetti is proud of – only former Australian player Sam Groth has served quicker, hitting one at 163.7 mph also in 2012.
At this year’s Wimbledon, Olivetti’s fastest serve was 140 mph, which remains among the highest in the men’s game.
When asked what makes his technique so powerful, the 6-foot-8 Frenchman initially points to his height as a major factor.
Kovacs agrees that there is a distinct correlation between height and a big serve, noting that the best players across the men’s and women’s games are now getting taller on average – a trend also seen across several other professional sports, such as basketball.
“So, force equals mass times acceleration,” Kovacs tells CNN Sports, explaining why height can make a difference.
“The force is what we’re talking about when we’re talking about serve speed. Mass is the person’s body weight, so being taller typically means you have more body weight.
“And then acceleration is your levers. If your arms and legs are longer, you actually get greater acceleration because you’ve got it over a slightly longer period of time.
“It’s also important to note that being over about 6-foot-6 allows you to hit down on the serve at contact. When you’re shorter than that, even though most people don’t realize it, you’re actually hitting up slightly on the ball when you’re serving, they’re actually not hitting down and that slight difference makes a big, big difference to speed.”
But both Kovacs and Olivetti say that height isn’t as big a benefit as some may think – it only gives you a higher ceiling to reach.
As someone who has always been taller than most of his opponents, Olivetti says technique always outweighs pure physical attributes and that’s why he has worked on his serving skills from an early age.
He also says that using the right equipment is important when it comes to finding a big serve, but explains that the search for a fast one sometimes comes at a cost.
For example, the racket he previously used, with his preferred string tension, helped create power on his serve but made returning from the baseline more difficult.
It’s sometimes tricky, he says, to find the balance.
“I was winning on my serve and not winning for the return part,” he tells CNN Sports.
“So then you have to find the right balance again for your game – maybe you prefer to lose speed on your serve and then be comfortable from the baseline, for example.
“I think every player is different, and you really have to find what works for you. Equipment is important for that, I would say.”
Moving forward, Olivetti says that serve speed will continue to increase as players look for new ways to refine this vital aspect of the game.
Kovacs agrees and says the current crop of players are nowhere near reaching the limit of how fast a human being can serve a tennis ball.
He says he can still see untapped potential in several top players – including world No. 1 Jannik Sinner – when it comes to their serving technique, with some leaving as much as 10 mph on the table.
While the biomechanics of a serve can offer players some control over improving their technique, Kovacs says that a number of external circumstances can influence the speed on any given day.
“There obviously is a limit, but that is under the assumption that everything stays the same from a standpoint of technology, balls, strings, rackets, and also temperature and environment plays a role,” he says.
“The reason you’ve seen these faster serves at Wimbledon this year is because the temperature was much hotter and drier the first few days, so the ball comes through the air a little bit faster. So you were getting three, four, five miles an hour more than you would typically see just because of weather conditions.”
With the serve becoming increasingly influential in the current game, the records being broken today will likely be surpassed again in the next decade.
And, perhaps more importantly, it’s still a source of pride and competition for all the big-hitters on tour.
“Yes,” Olivetti says smiling, when asked whether professional players even care about breaking new speed records.
“Always, since I started playing, I was always trying to serve as big as I can.”
