Serving up a storm.

Nick Kyrgios possesses the best serve on the planet this season, winning an ATP Tour-leading 92.8 per cent (568/612) of his service games from 45 matches. 

His motion is ruthless simplicity. His weight starts back while his arms are counterbalanced, stretched out in front. Imagine a bow flexing hard to shoot an arrow. He then drags his left foot and throws the toss far in front. It’s a quick, explosive motion that hardly sees the ball drop as he launches himself up into contact. At the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells this year against Rafael Nadal, he rocked a 143-mph first serve in the opening set and a 141-mph blast in the third set. 

Unreadable and unstoppable. 

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of Kyrgios’ 2022 serve statistics identifies seven specific point scores where he is the best on Tour at holding serve. The data set includes players who have played a minimum of 10 matches in 2022. Following are the point scores where Kyrgios leads the Tour, along with the Tour average.

Holding from 0/15 (Tour average 63.1%)
1st: N. Kyrgios, 82.4%
2nd: J. Isner, 81.7%
3rd: H. Hurkacz, 81.4%  

Kyrgios is holding serve around 93 per cent of the time this season. That only drops to 82 per cent if he drops the opening point – just a blip on the screen. Kyrgios, Isner, and Hurkacz were the only three players to break through the 80 per cent threshold. 

Holding from 0/30 (Tour average 40.5%)
1st: N. Kyrgios, 68.3%
2nd. N. Djokovic, 68.0%
3rd. J. Isner, 65.2%  

When the rest of the Tour falls behind 0/30, they only manage to hold around four times out of 10 (40.5%). Kyrgios, on the other hand, holds almost seven times out of 10 ( 68.3%). It’s a remarkable gap that he has forged over his fellow players at this specific point score.

[ATP APP]

Holding from 15/0 (Tour average 88.8%)
1st: N. Kyrgios = 97.1%
2nd: J. Isner = 96.6%
3rd: R. Opelka = 96.2%

Just one point to his advantage and Kyrgios holds serve an impressive 97 per cent of the time when leading 15/0. John Isner and Reilly Opelka were the other two players to reach the 96 per cent mark.

Holding from 30/30 (Tour average 73.5%)
1st. N. Kyrgios, 88.9%
2nd. C. O’Connell, 87.3%
3rd. J. Kubler, 86.7%

It’s interesting to see three Aussies at the top of this specific leaderboard, all able to close out a game from a tight 30/30 squeeze.

Holding from 30/15 (Tour average 88.4%)
1st: N. Kyrgios, 96.2%
2nd: J. Isner, 95.5%
3rd: H. Hurkacz, 95.4%

Kyrgios, Isner, and Hubert Hurkacz are consistently among the leading three players in these categories, but Kyrgios continually finds a way to edge them out of the top spot.

Holding from 30/40 (Tour average 44.8%)
1st. N. Kyrgios, 64.4%
2nd. J. Isner, 64.2%
3rd. M. Cressy, 62.5%

With Kyrgios facing a break point, he still manages to win almost two out of three (64.4%) service games, while the tour average struggles to get anywhere near the 50 per cent threshold, at 44.8 per cent.

Holding from Deuce (Tour average 72.8%)
1st: N. Kyrgios, 89.1%
2nd: H. Hurkacz, 87.4%
3rd: M. Cressy, 86.2%

These three players tower over the Tour average in closing out a game from deuce, with Kyrgios more than 16 percentage points higher. 

[NEWSLETTER FORM]

Kyrgios is back to bringing the heat. He has struck 716 aces this season (second best), with 23 of them coming when facing break point. His service motion is unreadable to the returner. He launches a powerful wide or ‘T’ first serve off exactly the same toss. He is back inside the Top 20 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and is currently seventh in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings with Thanasi Kokkinakis.

The Kyrgios mojo is rising.