Wimbledon 2022 final: Novak Djokovic distressed by Nick Kyrgios serve, says former team member

Ahead of the Wimbledon 2022 final on Sunday, a former member of Novak Djokovic’s team has come out saying that the Serbian is uncomfortable with Nick Kyrgios’ “unreadable” serve.

Djokovic, 35, was defeated twice by Kyrgios in 2017 at Acapulco Mexico and Indian Wells, when he began to look for a solution to the latter’s serve. Craig O’Shannessy, an Australian analyst, who was part of the Serbian’s team during that time has now revealed the incident.

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The Serbian great has faced Kyrgios only twice in his career, losing both times. In their first meeting at Acapulco Mexico in 2017, the Australian registered 25 aces to beat Djokovic. He also went on to register a double over the six-times Wimbledon winner in a matter of days at Indian Wells with 14 aces registered.

O’Shannessy has revealed that Djokovic tasked him with analysing Kyrgios’ mysterious serve at that time, looking for clues to interpret it well.

“Whether it’s his feet, the ball toss — anything different or any tell with where he’s serving,” O’Shannessy said to Sydney Morning Herald. 

“I ran overlay of Nick serving out wide and down the middle, and there’s no difference,” he added.

The analyst also added that the Serbian was resolute in his decision to be able to interpret Kyrgios’ serve in the future, however, O’Shannessy was unable to find anything.

“Novak was adamant there has to be something that you can read from Nick’s serve, but we found literally nothing. The wide serve and the T serve happen off the exact same toss. And because Nick’s motion is so quick, it’s unreadable,” he was quoted as saying.

“And Novak fears that service game. He absolutely does and that’s self-evident with Novak nominating Nick as the best serve he’s played against,” the Australian revealed.

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O’Shannessy has also said that his compatriot, Kyrgios, has an unique ability that helps him to differ the speed of second serves could become a problem for Djokovic when the duo face off on Sunday on the Centre Court.

“That second serve is arguably a bigger weapon because Nick’s confidence and willingness to switch things up, no-one else does that when really they should be trying it,” he revealed.

“He’s got the game to really worry Djokovic and really go all the way,” he added.