This is how Alcaraz plans to improve his serve in the new season

Diego Jiménez Rubio | 30 Dec 2025 | 19.48

Carlos Alcaraz, improvement in serving. Photo: gettyimages

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Life is a constant struggle to become better every day, and this becomes even more evident in professional tennis. Carlos Alcaraz is aware that, at 22 years old, he should be far from being a tennis player lacking in areas to refine, and the serve is one of the main aspects in which he has room for improvement. That's why he works with Samuel López to fine-tune a specific aspect of his serve.

The continuous improvement process in which every great tennis player embarks on has a special impact on Carlos Alcaraz's serve. The player from Murcia is aware that this shot is crucial to staying at the top and being a strong contender for continuous glory for many years. He also knows that he has improved a lot since his arrival on the circuit but needs to keep adding details to become a more solid and reliable server.

Alcaraz has several aspects of his serve with a significant room for improvement

His 183 centimeters in height put him at a disadvantage in this shot compared to taller opponents who can hit the ball higher and create a lever that gives more power and precision to their serves. Hitting from an elevated position ensures reliability, but players of Spanish stature must find their own automatism and tricks to give more bite to this shot.

He modified his serve mechanics at the beginning of 2025, yielding good results towards the end of the season, although his first serve percentage remains virtually around the circuit average, at 63.8%. There is room for improvement in this aspect, as well as in second serve points won and double faults committed.

Throughout this season, the player averaged 2.4 double faults per game and won 56.20% of points on the second serve, so his top priority could be enhancing his performance with the second serve. As depicted in the following TennisInsights chart, Carlos recurrently targets his opponent's backhand (if right-handed), suggesting that the change in mechanics could open up more variety in directions and make him an unpredictable player with his second serves.

These are the areas in which Alcaraz's new serve mechanics can enhance his serve

To address these three aspects of the serve, there is nothing better than slightly modifying the initiation in the service mechanics to facilitate an effective ball toss and hit the ball as high as possible. This seems to be what Carlos Alcaraz is working on these days in Murcia with Samuel López, based on the exercises performed. Refining the toss not only helps hit the ball higher and at an angle conducive to applying spin with a margin of error but also to lean forward, increasing the shot's power without taking too much risk.

serving practice 🍀🍀 pic.twitter.com/aLydPJgvJt
— f (@fvaeey) December 28, 2025

In the images, you can see how the starting position for the serve is with the racket higher than usual, aiming to ensure that the left-hand ball toss finds the precise angle to hit high and impart effects that enhance the reliability of his service. One reason for this change could be to target more serves towards the T on the advantage side and wide on the deuce side. Carlos didn't lean too much into these directions during 2025, but when he did, he reaped good rewards.

It's interesting how this way of starting the serve motion is very similar to that of Novak Djokovic, who had challenges in this aspect during the early years of his professional career. Indeed, the Serbian's mechanics change was accompanied by a significant increase in serves to the opponent's right side, so Alcaraz might have been inspired by his example to emulate both the starting position in the serve and the goal to achieve through it.

The Serbian corrected all these aspects, becoming an extremely efficient server, with this shot being a far more critical part of his success than one would expect in the initial phases of his career. Carlos Alcaraz seems to have taken note and continues to add details to his game to be a more complete player. We will see if these changes are noticeable in the 2026 Australian Open or if more time is needed, as was the case in 2025.

Source data: Insights, by TennisViz

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Así es como Alcaraz pretende mejorar su saque en la nueva temporada