By Chris Oddo | Friday January 11, 2019
Photo Source: Mark Peterson/Corleve
New year, new serve?
According to Rafael Nadal’s coaches that is indeed the case with 17-time major champion’s serve in 2019.
In an article released at ATPWorldTour.com, Moya and Roig explained the reasoning behind Nadal’s new service and talked about some of the technical details.
“These changes came following that match at the US Open,” Moya told ATPWorldTour. “Rafa was all for the changes, even if meant added work. He was the first to identify the weakness in his serve, and we as a team formulated an approach to improve it. We were sidetracked [in late 2018] because of the abdominal injury and the right ankle surgery but finally got around to physically working out the new service motion after recovery. I’m happy to say he’s now comfortable with the revamped serve motion.”
Roig and Moya say that Nadal is going for a faster, more aggressive serve.
Roig said that Nadal’s second serve could benefit from a lower bounce, and admitted that the new serve is a bit more risky.
We’ll be keeping an eye on Nadal’s first and second-serve speeds as well as his service stats as he plays his first-round match against Australia’s James Duckworth. We’ll also keep an eye on Nadal’s pre-tournament presser to see what he is saying about the revamped serve.
Keep it tuned to Tennis Now for more.