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<\/p>\n Player Features
\n Opelka a ‘solo mad scientist’ trying to find his perfect serve<\/p>\n
Insight from Opelka and coach Denis Kudla<\/p>\n
August 11, 2025<\/p>\n
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Matthew Stockman\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Reilly Opelka leads the ATP Tour this year in aces according to Infosys ATP Stats.
\n By Andrew Eichenholz<\/p>\n
Reilly Opelka<\/a> on Sunday upset Alex de Minaur<\/a>, who entered the Cincinnati Open<\/a> third on the ATP Tour this season in return games won (31.2%). But even though the American did not drop serve, he was not completely satisfied with his delivery.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t serve as well as I\u2019d like to, but everything else was working,\u201d Opelka, one of the best servers in history, said after the match.<\/p>\n Even though Opelka has posted top numbers this year on serve \u2014 winning 89 per cent of his service games and leading the Tour in aces \u2014 the American has actually been tinkering with his motion.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just trying to get back to my original motion, slowly,\u201d Opelka told ATPTour.com in Cincinnati. \u201cNow that my wrist has gotten a lot better and my range of motion has gotten back to where it was, I\u2019m trying to get back to my serve motion where it once was. That for me was my best serving year, 2021. And then since the wrist got bad, I\u2019ve had to change my mechanics to keep it out of pain. <\/p>\n \u201cSo now that the wrist is starting to get a lot better, we\u2019re trying to get back to my old, my \u2018regular serve\u2019, I\u2019d call it.\u201d<\/p>\n The goal is to get used to the adjustment to make a higher percentage of first serves. In 2021, which Opelka referenced as his best serving season, he made 66 per cent of his first deliveries. This year, the 27-year-old is at 62 per cent, according to Infosys ATP Stats.<\/p>\n \u201cHis serve, believe it or not, it was actually a challenge for a while, and it still can be,\u201d said Opelka\u2019s coach, Denis Kudla<\/a>. \u201cObviously, in the beginning of the year, he was healthy with everything else, but still had some issues where he wasn’t able to kind of have his old motion. So we were really trying to figure out how we could get him to serve the way he did, but he needed to have a slightly different motion.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a lot of thinking involved, which too much thinking in tennis can be a little difficult. So now it got to a point where I feel like he has more than enough information and he just had to find a way to simplify and have his own cues for himself.\u201d<\/p>\n Kudla and the rest of Opelka\u2019s team, including longtime coach Jay Berger<\/a>, have taken this approach: They are available for their charge if he has any questions or wants to discuss anything, but given Opelka is an all-time great server, they allow him to find what feels best for him.<\/p>\n \u201cHe’s like that solo mad scientist on that project, and I actually agree with that,\u201d Kudla said. \u201cI think sometimes, things like that can just be feel and the player knows best.\u201d<\/p>\n
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