Nick Kyrgios was stunned by the young Frenchman, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard at the Brisbane International! The 21-year-old Frenchman sealed a hard-fought victory against the crowd favorite on Tuesday. Perricard made a massive jump in the ATP Rankings this year. He started the year outside the Top 200 and guess what? He is now ranked 31 in the world! The 6ft 8 inches tall player is well known for his fiery serves and Nick Krygios felt the heat of it in the first round of Brisbane International! Perricard’s astonishing numbers in this match caught the eye of the former Aussie tennis player Paul McNamee who hinted at a possible change of guard.

Both Nick Kyrgios and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard are known for their big serves. So, fans expected them to hit quite a few aces in this epic battle. However, no one could’ve imagined that Perricard would fire 36 aces compared to just 15 from Kyrgios. Highlighting this stat, the 70-year-old McNamee posted on X, “Nick Kyrgios now resorting to guessing where Perricard, up a set, is serving. He’s over 200 km on 2nd serves. So, remarkable as it is, he’s serving bigger than Kyrgios… that is a first, and new territory for Nick and the sport.”

McNamee further added another post saying, “Perricard outserves Kyrgios 36 aces to 15 … in his words he served ‘not bad’…. and takes it 76 in the 3rd… no breaks of serve in 36 games so a bit of a tough watch… but Nick looked good when he could get into a rally… I’d say a decent start for him.” Do you know how many aces Perricard has hit this season?

Well, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard has hammered 532 aces this season and committed just 153 double faults! In this match against Nick Kyrgios, Perricard was also quite lethal from the baseline, crushing 8 forehand winners in the first set alone. “Playing against Nick was a good match for me, he did some good things during the match. He was very confident, and a good serve. I tried my best and it worked,” said the Frenchman after the match. What did Kyrgios think about the serving ability of Perricard though?

Nick Kyrgios knew what he was up against ahead of this epic encounter

Nick Kyrgios had to wait for a long time to play in front of his home crowd. However, his journey in Brisbane was cut short by Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard. Although the duo of Kyrgios and Novak Djokovic is still well alive in the doubles event of the Brisbane International, this early exit from the singles event has now raised some serious doubts about Kyrgios’ form ahead of the 2025 AO.

Before the match against Perricard, Kyrgios said, “He (Perricard) has one of the best serves. Testing my wrist against that… I play against Perricard, who undoubtedly has the biggest serve on the circuit.” This was their first meeting on the Tour and the youngster really managed to make a statement with his serve against a similar big server like Nick Kyrgios.

But Kyrgios is not the only one to heap praises on Perricard recently. Just a few months ago, the American star Ben Shelton was all praise for the Frenchman, as he said, “I almost killed myself trying to return your serve. So many other parts of your game have improved so much and you’re such a great young talent and so good for the sport.“

Even Coco Gauff’s former coach, Brad Gilbert spoke about Perricard’s incredible serving abilities recently. Gilbert said, “He (Perricard) has the ability to just take the racquet out of your hand. It can be one of those mental matches where you don’t get a look but you have to take care of your serve.”

Gilbert further elaborated, “I think people get a little carried away because you’re tall, that you’re going to have a good serve. He has a very repeatable, easy motion, doesn’t have a high ball toss, and it comes very quickly out of his hand. It’s a very easy, repeatable motion. I think that gets lost.” Do you think Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard is now one of the best servers on the men’s Tour?