Isner, Opelka & more weigh in on Sinner's serving surge

A lot of the attention on Jannik Sinner’s game goes to his booming groundstrokes and dominant baseline game. But the key to his ascent to No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings this year has been his serve.

The Italian has dominated all major service categories according to Infosys ATP Stats, positioning himself to unleash the rest of his game on the ATP Tour.

“There are still signs of sometimes being inconsistent with that shot. It has been more consistent in the last three, four months, that's for sure,” Sinner told ATPTour.com in Cincinnati. “Then it's a weapon or a shot where I can put myself a little bit out of danger sometimes, but I still believe that there's a lot of work to do.”

Sinner entered the US Open leading the Tour in service games won (91.3%), second-serve points won (57.5%) and break points saved (72.9%). He is second in first-serve points won at 79.5 per cent, which only trails Grigor Dimitrov.

“We changed a couple of things with the toss of the ball, and also my mental side,” Sinner said. “It has been different, trying to play sometimes with a bit more rotation, instead of going to hit the ace or all that stuff.”

Photo Credit: Mike Lawrence/ATP Tour
One of the best servers in the history of tennis, John Isner, has taken notice of the Italian’s improvement. The final meeting of their Lexus ATP Head2Head series came two years ago at Wimbledon.

“A lot of people have noticed, myself included, that Sinner has, really since working with Darren Cahill, changed his service motion from platform to pinpoint,” Isner said. “His serve looks pretty similar to mine and in my mind, that’s the superior way to serve. So he obviously stuck with it. It seems like it would be a simple change, but it’s definitely not. He stuck with it, stayed the course and it’s paying off for him as his service numbers are so, so good."

Isner won 91.8 per cent of his service games in his career, with his record 14,470 aces a big reason why. The American explained that Sinner’s improvement has been different.

“It’s not that he’s hitting a million aces like I did, but a little bit better placement allows him to dictate play much quicker in the rally on his serve and we all know he’s one of the best baseliners in the world,” Isner said. “It seems to me he’s improved just his serve in a vacuum about 10 per cent and that’s been huge for him and a big reason why he ascended to No. 1 in the world.”

Another dominant server, Reilly Opelka, won a doubles title with Sinner in Atlanta in 2021. The American missed nearly two years due to a wrist injury. But upon his return this year in Newport, he raved about how much the Italian has improved.

“Jannik's improved a tonne since I've been on Tour. No one talks about it just because he was always really good,” Opelka said. “He didn't have a great serve when I left. He took the ball almost too early, and made too many unforced errors. The guy barely loses to anybody now. You can't say hands down the best player in the world since Alcaraz won Wimbledon, but those two are on their own level.”

According to Opelka, Sinner is hitting his spots with his serve “way better” and his cadence has changed.

“His motion looks faster. It looks like he changed the tempo of his motion,” Opelka said. “Any young guy — he was so young, and he was so good — you just knew he was going to improve and he's still going to improve, which is scary. I got to hang out with him in Atlanta. Nicest kid in the whole world. We were going to dinner every night. Everything that you see, that you suspect, is who he really is. He's as sweet of a guy as you can imagine.”

Sinner has not served quite as well in New York, where he has won 85 per cent of his service games. However, compared to his early-career numbers, that is still a solid effort. Before 2023, the Italian never won more than 83 per cent of his service games in a season.

The 85 per cent is also slightly misleading. The 23-year-old has lost serve six times in the tournament, and three of those service games came in his first set of the tournament. In his nine sets since, he has dropped a total of three service games. Excluding that opening set against Mackenzie McDonald, Sinner has won 89.5 per cent of his service games.

Sinner’s second-round opponent, #NextGenATP American Alex Michelsen, came away from their clash inside Arthur Ashe Stadium impressed.

“The guy is hitting 128 [mph] flat wide aces on the Ad and [at] 15/30, 40/30, on big points, he’s coming up with the goods,” Michelsen said. “He’s a very clutch server and that’s not really something I realised until I played him and it’s just like, ‘Ugh, this guy’s getting two, three free points a game’, and that helps a lot.”

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