Australian Open 2020 - From weakness to weapon – Djokovic talks through changes to service game

Djokovic breezed through his second round Australian Open clash with Japan’s Tatsuma Ito on Wednesday, dropping just seven games and hitting a remarkable 16 aces in the process.

Afterwards he joined Eurosport expert and two-time Australian Open winner Boris Becker in the studio on Game, Schett and Mats where he was asked about his serve.

To begin with, Becker brought up a couple of clips from Djokovic serving 10 years ago.

“See the elbow and everything else, to what you’re doing now,” Becker told Djokovic. “What happened with your serve? This has gone from a weakness to a weapon.”

Djokovic quickly paid homage to both Becker and former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic for the work they have done with him before explaining that people underestimated his serve in the past.

“I think my serve was probably underestimated as one of the weapons because I was so fortunate to return so well throughout my career and get myself in the rallies, moving pretty well and playing an accurate baseline game," he said.

“But the serve was getting me out of trouble a lot in my career, giving me a lot of free points especially when I was playing my best seasons like 2011 and 2015 [when] I had a lot of great percentages on first serves.

“So today and the last match I served I think over 10 aces which is quite great for me (16 against Ito and 14 in the first round clash with Jan-Lennard Struff) so it’s definitely above the average.”

Djokovic is sort of correct in his assessment.

Actually his dominant 2011 season, which yielded the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open titles, was not one of his best seasons from a serving perspective. In fact on numbers alone he was far stronger in the next few seasons, hitting more aces and winning more of his service games.

But in 2015, he won 89% of his service games, the most of his career for a full season, and also won 60% of his second service points, also a career record. It coincided with winning Wimbledon and US Open - the platform that carried him to a career Slam the following year.

That season will go down as one of the greatest in tennis history and Djokovic’s dominance was seen across all spheres of his game, not just his serving.

The past couple of seasons have been a clear rebuilding process for the Serb after his elbow surgery, which culminated in his return to world number one in 2018.

It’s early on in 2020 but this is already shaping up to potentially be up there with the best of his career - although his stats may drop as he goes deeper in Melbourne. The percentage of service games won is a staggering 90% already and he’s winning 76% of his first serve points.

This should be a concern for Djokovic’s rivals. If he is making tweaks and working on his serve it’s because he is comfortable with other aspects of his game, and now wants to tune up this part too.

Serving isn’t all about aces but Djokovic is clearly making an effort to up his aces number - it’s an obvious tactic as he gets older.

He can’t keep getting involved in brutal baseline rallies, so he has to improve his efficiency as Federer has done.

When you look at Djokovic against his rivals, coaches and some of the great servers, it gives a better idea of what he's doing. Again, serving isn't all about aces but it is interesting to look at.

*Stats correct before Federer's second round Australian Open match with Filip Krajinovic

His aces ratio doesn’t stack up to some of the historic greats but if he can move it above 0.5-per-game it will add another string to his bow as he enters the latter stages of his career.

Comparing him to servers like Ivo Karlovic and John Isner isn’t meant as a slight on Djokovic, his numbers are genuinely impressive, it’s to try and give some perspective with what he is doing.

You can see the improvement year on year, and then again after surgery, so Djokovic is right to say his serve was underrated, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement.

Becker was also keen to highlight another improved aspect of Djokovic’s serve - his speed.

“I’ll show you another statistic which is mind-blowing in my opinion,” Becker said.

“That’s your speed, you’re 5km/h faster than last year and 10km/h on second serve.”

“Now I know how you felt in your career getting that many aces and free points,” Djokovic replied. “That’s definitely always a goal to improve serve it was one of the priorities that I’ve worked with my team,

“It’s great to see I’m going for my second serve more when I’m more confident but I’ve also been working on getting a little more reach trying to extend my height and works well.”

Djokovic will never go down as one of the greatest servers, it’s no surprise that a lot of the top servers looked at would not necessarily be in discussion as one of the greatest players ever.

True greats, like Djokovic and Federer, have multiple facets to their game, that’s what sets them apart from the rest of the pack.

The other thing that truly separates Djokovic, Federer and Rafael Nadal from their peers is their ability to adapt and evolve, both with age and moving trends.

If Djokovic can refine his serve even more and maintain this level who knows what may be possible in the coming years...