Former world No. 1 Andy Roddick doesn’t quite agree that Nick Kyrgios’ serve is the best of all time, at least not yet. Mark Petchey, a retired British tennis player who now works as a tennis commentator and analyst, stated on the Tennis Channel’s Inside-In podcast that Kyrgios’ serve is the best of all time.
Roddick, who was known as one of the best servers on Tour during his playing days, seems to disagree with Petchey’s statement. Roddick took notice of Petchey’s claims and responded: “Isner, Karlovic, Becker, Sampras, Arthurs, Ivanisevic, and I’m sure I forget others.
Who do you leave out for this statement to be true? “In isolation, it’s one of the top five serves of all time,” Petchey said on the Tennis Channel’s Inside-In show, according to Sportskeeda. “Yeah, okay, he hasn’t won Majors, so how do you say that? In short, he’s one of the best serves of all time.”
Kyrgios has played very well in the last two months and his serve has been one of the main reasons why he has won a lot in recent weeks. After being runner-up at Wimbledon, Kyrgios reached the Washington final in his first hard-court tournament of the summer.
“I think we’re all going to have to come to terms with the fact that there are going to be times when people are going to say ‘that felt unacceptable,'” Petchey said. “But, right now, where he is, the quality of tennis that he’s put on the court in Washington after coming off that final at Wimbledon, very few players have and would have.
He’s brought that drive, the passion and the desire, and concentration.”
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Speaking to the Tennis Channel following the win, Nick Kyrgios said that he’s enjoying his tennis and is looking to get back to where he belongs in the ATP rankings.
“It’s rewarding to beat the World No. 1, it’s just a reflection of all the hard work I’ve done in Sydney. You know, the positive mindset. After Washington, [I] could [have] easily come here and be content with what I did last week.
But I wanted to empty the tank these two weeks. My ranking is not where I wanted to be after not getting those points at Wimbledon. I got to capitalize on this little window,” Nick Kyrgios explained. The 27-year-old, who used the serve-and-volley tactic to exploit the defending champion’s deep positioning behind the baseline on return, said that he chose his tactics well before the contest started.
“I came out today and I was like I’m just gonna go there with a serve-and-volley tactic pretty much every point, serving in volume. I didn’t want to give him any rhythm. Obviously, he’s playing pretty well right now so I wanted to just try and break it,” Kyrgios said.
