By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Saturday, March 29, 2025
Photo credit: Miami Open by Itau
Tennis is a numbers game.
Grand Slam king Novak Djokovic has spent his career amassing dominant digits.
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The 37-year-old Serbian superstar has reached 142 finals, won 99 career championships, including 24 Grand Slam crowns, holds the ATP and WTA record for most weeks as world No. 1 (428) and he’s earned a record $182 million, and counting, in prize money.
So it takes a substantial stat to impress Djokovic.
The fourth-seed’s serving precision in Miami has struck Djokovic himself as an “amazing, amazing standard.”
In his most commanding service performance of the year, served a mind-boggling 87 percent today, won 31 of 39 first-serve points, fired five aces and faced just two break points sweeping old friend Grigor Dimitrov in a 70-minute semifinal. That followed off an astounding serving performance that saw him serve 84 percent and pump 11 aces defeating Sebastian Korda in a physical quarterfinal conquest.
“I think I’ve been serving pretty well this year,” Djokovic told the media in Miami. “Maybe some other elements in my game haven’t been working particularly well. But serve was solid. I mean, this is whole different level of serving, obviously.
“I mean, I did not expect myself to top the serving performance of last match, where I had 83%, and I had 87% today. I missed I think five or six serves in the whole match. So that’s really amazing, amazing standard, really high standard.”
Djokovic is holding serve at a rate of 88.19% this season, which is seventh on the ATP Tour. Explosive Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard leads the ATP holding at 93.86%, Matteto Berrettini is second at 90.91% and American Taylor Fritz is third hodling at a 90.37%
Serving prowess has given the Open Era’s greatest returner a glimpse of how it must feel to be Reilly Opelka or Nick Kyrgios.
Contesting his first Miami Open since 2019, Djokovic said the faster serve speed and the fact he found his range and rhythm on serve almost immediately have propelled him to this eighth Miami Open final vs. Jakub Mensik.
“I must say was joking with Tim Henman in the post-match interview that now I know how it feels like to be Isner or Opelka, just make most of your first serves,” Djokovic said. “Maybe not as many aces as these guys, but…
“But yeah, it does help tremendously. It just releases that unnecessary pressure from all the other shots in your game. Then you can kind of put more pressure on the return games on your opponent.”
Hall of Famer Andre Agassi has called Djokovic the greatest returner of all time. Hall of Famer John McEnroe calls Djokovic “the greatest mover on a hard court I’ve ever seen on a tennis court” and many opponents have called him the Open Era’s greatest groundstroker.
One aspect of Djokovic’s game that perhaps doesn’t get as much appreciation is his serve.
Earlier in his career, Djokovic actually hit more double faults than aces on season, but worked diligently to strengthen his serve.
Over the years, Djokovic worked with three coaches who were dominant servers in their day—Goran Ivanisevic, Boris Becker and Todd Martin—and says his secret is he places a premium on placement over power to set up his first strike. Djokovic said he and new coach Andy Murray have put a lot of work into his serve in practices.
“Obviously I’m a baseline player. Most of my career return and backhand is probably the shots that have been talked about the most when it comes to my game and success,” Djokovic said. “Maybe the serve has been a bit underrated. But I always liked my serve, particularly when it comes to accuracy and precision. That’s what I was looking for.
“I was never really looking to ramp up the miles per hour on the serve. I mean, it’s great if you can serve 130-miles-an-hour serve, but I’d rather serve 120 miles an hour and hit the line and hit the perfect spot in the box because that’s what either wins you a point or gives you an easy first shot in the rally.”
