The Mpetshi Perricard Serve is Insane

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In today's tennis lesson, I explain why Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard’s fast rhythm serve technique is so effective, and I compare it to the Jack Draper serve, which is easier to pull off.

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[IntuitiveTennis]

I’m getting some questions in my DMs about Perricard’s second serve. Let me clarify: He was absolutely hitting TWO FIRST SERVES in this tournament. You can clearly see that it looks different from other second serves on tour, including top server Shelton.

What is a second serve? On the ATP, it is generally hit with kick. Perricard is not kicking his second serve in. He is going for it and delivering a slice or flattening it out.

Now, he does miss more first serves than second serves, and there has been a discrepancy in average speed this past week (140 mph firsts, 129 mph seconds)

Even though he is going for his second serve and ripping it, there are still ways to put more margin on the ball. Shot selection and placement are risk mitigators. That explains why he misses fewer seconds than firsts. However, second serves struck at an average of 129 mph are NOT second serves, and they are NOT kick serves.

The average second serve speed on the ATP tour is 96-98 mph. Aliassime, Berretini, and Shapovalov have big second serves with average speeds slightly over 100 mph, which is nowhere near the numbers Perricard delivered this week. Truly insane!!

Also, Perricard’s first and second serve average speed discrepancy in the final alone was smaller, 134 mph firsts & 128 mph seconds.


Perricard Serve Analysis

[dustyroot]

Those pickleball lines are criminal being so close to the service line.

[TuanNguyen-huue]

I watched the Basel final courtside. He hit 4 2nd serve aces in a row, with all 4 faster than 210 km/h. Haven't seen those since Pete Sampras. Amazing

[Casualsupport]

I watched GMP courtside in Melbourne when he was 16 playing 2020 Australian Open Boys vs a tiny Australian kid. He hit a 215km body serve. I made sure to remember that name! Glad to see him doing well.

[davidrieger]

This guy is 6'8 and Kyrgios and Draper are both 6'4, way taller than the average person. Pretty handy when it comes to serving. For most people, the guy whose serve you want to copy is Pete. He was 6'1 (not super tall) but was one of the best servers ever to play the game. His technique was perfect.

[oatenn]

Very excited to start watching Perricard! Love his backhand style, very simple and effective

[bonto_jr]

I was in the crowd during the final… Perricard left nothing to Shelton. The slowest serve the guy delivered was 187km/h (116 mph) and was a slice wide out on the line. All the others were all above 125 for second serve and 140 for first serves.

We could not track the ball from the stand as we were sitting too close to the court, it was just insane!

People were not realizing what was happening… we probably saw the rise of (potentially) the greatest server of the game displaying all his abilities.

[tomk]

Brosky is 6"8. Let that sink in. He is a giant. No amount of copying his techique will let you hit as hard as he can consistently unless you are also 6f 8. Its literally impossible if you are below 6.

[RuffaloLaPorte]

Its so nice to see his style of tennis in the game today.

[philipng]

Mpetshi Perricard is 6'8" tall which definitely has advantage in the serve by nature.

[GinoFerreri]

Nick you hit the nail in the head again my friend. He reminded me of old good times with Becker, Stich, Philipousis, and Co.

[thomasc]

I agree one hundred percent. But what impressed me equally as much, at least in today's final, was his consistent Lendl-like backhand and Sampras-like forehand. I witnessed a complete package today that was more impressive than Alcaraz. Just my opinion, of course!

[furionese]

I think your previous video of Perricard's serve made me aware of this player, I hadn't known him back then. I think you said something along the lines of "he MIGHT be the greatest server in the making" and that's a bold statement so I checked him out. Wow, I think you were right.
Scary thing is, he is getting even better at fast rate...

[michaeldeangelis]

Perricard has great hands, creative shots, and poise. No surprise if he is in the top 5 over the next couple of years.

[lucv]

Don’t forget that the tournament in Basel was played indoors, making it much easier to serve.

[humanentity]

Great analysis coach. Love the comparison with pistol Pete and Goran. I love the mental composure of the young French man as well. That's a weapon in itself just like the stoic American Greek Sampras.

[harryertai]

The kid is serving on a Babolat Pure Drive... proved to be the best serving racquet in the world

[ronwatts]

love the comment "what we can learn from it (Perricard's serve technique) How do you learn to become 2+ meters in height? I've been searching for years how to make myself taller, but nothing has helped. BTW I also read how 16 out of the 20 of the hardest servers in the ATP over the last 20 years were at least 1.9 meters (6ft 5 in)...so let's put things in

[nightowldickson]

Your previous video was spot on. Super impressed with his serve, better than Shelton's.

[deepseadiver]

Nice video. His serving puts an interesting twist on the saying that “you are only as good as your 2nd serve”. On another note, I have some footage of Jack Draper serving which I shot this year at US Open (practice with Dan Evans), I’ll gladly send it your way if you’d like to use it.