Cometh the grass-court season, cometh the big serving numbers! The lush green tennis courts are a welcome sign for the players who serve big, as returning becomes difficult due to the fast nature of the surfaces. It is the grass courts where we see a greater number of aces being hit and the 2024 Wimbledon Championships is no exception. Recently, 20-year-old French tennis sensation, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, scripted an amazing display where he showed his big serving prowess. This invited a wonderful reaction from Coco Gauff’s coach, Brad Gilbert.

Mpetshi was playing in his first-round match today at Wimbledon against 20th seed Sebastian Korda. The match went right to the business end, with the French sensation winning it in 5 sets. In the process, he went on to hit an astonishing 51 aces, becoming among the top players to hit the most aces in a match. Additionally, his serve speed was incredibly high and was even pointed out by Gauff’s coach, Brad Gilbert.

He took to Twitter and said, “Perricard Average 1st serv through 1st 3 sets is 137 MPH and has hit 44 above 140 @andyroddick might be the biggest numbers I have ever seen.”

The French youngster’s serve became the turning point in the context of the match as he achieved the biggest win of his career. Statistically speaking, he even left Roger Federer behind in the most aces hit in a match. While Federer had hit 50 aces during the 2009 Wimbledon final win over Andy Roddick, Giovanni Mpetshi went a step ahead of him by slamming 51 aces.

Interestingly, Korda failed to break Mpetshi even once throughout the course of the match. It was another rare feat where a player had managed to hold serve throughout the five sets played. Meanwhile, Gilbert is following the serves closely during the grass court season. Ahead of the start of the season, he pondered over the big serves of players like Milos Raonic and Qinwen Zheng.

Brad Gilbert left in awe of the players’ big serving skills

Apart from his coaching commitments, Gilbert is very active in the tennis world, often giving his views on trending topics. Recently, he pointed out how huge serves could help the likes of Raonic and Zheng during the grass court season.

He revealed, “yesterday Missile Raonic drops @atptour record 47 aces, Zheng just hits 23 aces taking out Double Osaka, that has to be most on @WTA tour this year, wonder 💭 where that total is in top 10 list.”

While Raonic achieved this feat at the Queen’s Club, Zheng executed it at the Berlin Grass Court Championships. Moreover, the former even broke the record of the most aces hit in a three-setter match. While Raonic was able to get through his opening-round encounter with his big serves, Zheng’s tenure at 2024 Wimbledon came to a premature end. Despite this, the two stay among the best servers out there on the tennis court.