Rafael Nadal He has a litmus test in his second round match at the Rome Masters 1000. After a difficult victory in his debut against the Belgian Bergs, Hubert Hurkacz is his next rival in the Foro Italico. The Polish, winner of eight ATP titles, including two Masters 1000: Miami 2021 and Shanghai 2023has just won his first title on clay in his career, after winning the 250 ATP tournament Estoril the first week of April.
Despite not passing the first rounds in Montecarlo y Madridthe Pole has a lethal weapon: your service. The relevance of the serve in recent times has increased exponentially, due to the speed that racquet sport is taking. Furthermore, it is a blow in which you have total control, over which the opponent has no influence whatsoever.
The best serve on the circuit
Hubert Hurkacznumber 9 in the ATP ranking, in regards to service, leads the classification on the circuit. As if it were a cannon, with an average of 204 km/h on the first serviceshare with Ben Shelton the fastest serves. Not only with this, the top10 is accompanied by acuity by one sniperbeing the tennis player with the best ‘serve rating’ in the world: 299.2. A power and precision that also leads him to be the tennis player with the highest percentage of success in the first serve, with 78.9%, according to the study published this year by the ATP.
Statistics in the ATP circuit service.
As if this were not enough, Hurkacz Furthermore, he is the one who most ‘aces’ average per game, with 14’3 direct aces, far from the second best (the American Eubanks with 11’5). These figures made him the first player under two meters to achieve more than 1000 ‘aces’ in a season, with 1031 aces in 2023from the best Raonic of 2014.
A complete level test against a top 10, the first that Rafael Nadal will face since his return and against which he has never faced before. The ten-time champion at the Foro Italico will meet on Saturday against the current best server, after becoming the tennis player with the most appearances (19) and victories (70) in the tournament.
2024-05-09 18:09:28
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