Interactive Forum March 2025: Sasha Zverev Two Serves!

[jeffreycounts]

Sasha Zverev Serves: Side By Side

Jim Fawcette shot these really amazing slow motion videos of two of Sasha's serves and here they are side by side!

On the left is a a serve down the T and on the right is a wide serve. Jim has slowed down the video so you can see all the details, and in the wide serve at the end he provides a close up to see how the angle of approach and the angle on contact look for the wide serve.

Would love your thoughts on this fascinating side by side comparison thanks to the extremely talented Jim Fawcette!

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[jimlosaltos]

Sasha Zverev has changed his service motion yielding significantly better results for 2024 (details below). So we thought it was time for another look.

Here are two serves from BNP Indian Wells last March when Zverev played Carlos Alcaraz. The serve on your left is an ace up the T to the ad court at 130 MPH and fairly heavy. The service on your right is a 129 MPH serve out wide to the deuce court.

CAVEAT: Don't try to make close comparisons of the timing between these two videos. Because of restraints on the camera I could use, I produced the slow motion entirely in software. So, the two videos are NOT slowed by the precisely identical amount. Also, the videos are highly cropped due to my reliance on a shorter lens than usual. Still, I hope this gives you some perspective on two differing types of Zverev serves. I also added stop action around the point of impact at the end of each video, to better show the racket head movement and long-axis rotation around that point.

KUDOS: Special thanks to Jeff Counts of TPN who put in the extra effort to format and post the vertical, side-by-side videos. Jeff has been doing a stellar job behind the scenes to keep TPN going while the Yandell family regroups. Thank you, Jeff.

Some background on Zverev's even better serve in 2024.

Zverev held serve at the best clip of his career, 90.2 per cent, improving from 84.7 per cent in 2023. That is only a 6.5 per cent year-over-year increase

Via ATP: Take for example how often Zverev has won matches without losing serve. Entering 2024, his best season in that statistic had been 2018, when he did not lose serve in 30.1 per cent of his matches. In 2024, he did not drop serve in an astonishing 40.5 per cent of his matches. The German won all 34 matches he played last season in which he did not lose serve.

"Changing the ball toss on my serve, and having a more consistent second serve, also," Zverev said. "I think that was the number one factor."

Caption: This screen cap from TV describes how Zverev's toss has changed. Note: From my still images taken last year, his toss was the highest of any player I watched in person. His impact point on serve in my images is nearly a foot higher than that of Daniil Medvdev, who is listed at the same height of 6 ft 6 in. Also, Zverev has increased the percent of first serves he gets in, so he doesn't have to hit as many second serves.

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The numbers show that Zverev was right. From 2014-2023, he averaged between 2.7 and 5.7 double faults per match each season. The World No. 2 averaged just two double faults per match in 2024. With improved consistency, Zverev won 55 per cent of his second-serve points last season, the best mark of his career.

My rough notes at the time: Appears to have lowered his toss slightly, and waits in the lag position longer before taking his racket back.

Roddick in May: “His serve is phenomenal, he has one of the biggest serves on tour this year,” Roddick said on his ‘Served’ podcast. “And for the entire year he is serving 74% first serves in. Nobody else is close to that.

“So 10 percentage points up over that period is absurd. You know the best way to protect a faulty second serve, make 10 per cent more first serves in.”

Zverev's 2024 Serving At A Glance (Tour Rank)

Category	Percentage	Tour Rank
First-Serve %	71.2%	2
First-Serve Pts Won	76.8%	8
Second-Serve Pts Won	54.8%	9
Service Games Won	90.2%	2

[stotty]

The first thing that popped out to me is the difference in the rear foot in the pinpoint stance. The clip on the left has the rear foot directly behind the front foot while the clip on the right has the rear foot creeping round more. The ISR is slightly fuller on the left clip than the right clip also. I guess these two deficiencies add up to 1mph...

[jimlosaltos]

I guess these two deficiencies add up to 1mph...

I like that. For him, that's 0.76%