Interactive Forum February 2023 Holger Rune Serve

[John Yandell]

Ha!

[stroke]

He is way better than Oscar, so there's that.

[don_budge]

Patrick...ugh...

That's a. nice way of putting it.

[John Yandell]

Yep agreed he doesn't make it all the way all the time...Patrick...ugh...

[rstrecker]

Is it just me or does Rune miss getting a full internal shoulder rotation on a lot of his first serves? It’s not easy to stop the clip and go frame by frame but when I try to do thatbmanually, I don’t see the hitting surface turn all the way to the outside on most of these. I can’t tell if these are all on slice serves where you don’t always see complete rotation but I wonder. One of the YouTube clips of Mourataglou coaching HR indicates that Holger’s natural serve was a slice and he had to work to add the flat serve to the arsenal. Maybe there is still room for improvement here.

[chuahman]

Interestingly in viewing Rf second serve some do have a deep racquet drop.

[chuahman]

Hey all, interesting observations, of note is comment re first and second serve. Is the racquet drop more away from his body and I see quite a deep drop. Trying to line up side by side with Rf then it will provide an invaluable comparison. Correct as did see you tube with Pat providing instruction. No shadowing and visualisation before executing change!!

[stroke]

I really like Runes service motion. Very explosive for a not tall player. His technique is just very good on all his shots, and it is important to him. It looks kinda like the BG endorsed ""probation" serve to me.

[stroke]

An example that came to mind was watching Nick Kyrgios dismantle Djokovic at Indian Wells (after beating him weeks earlier in Acapulco). Had Novak completely flummoxed on return.

Nick hit a 120 MPH second serve, then an 86 MPH kick first serve. Both left Djokovic motionless -- until he pivoted to scream at his box, of course.

I'd say some of Fed's first serves, when he slows down his wide slice to the deuce court, could be in the category of "change ups". ~90 MPH short and wide.

I also have a very vague memory of a doubles match where an unknown player was hitting some 60 MPH first serves that John McEnroe couldn't do anything with ... sorry, that's all I recall there.

I remember that. We all know how good Nick's 1st and 2nd serve can be. Stand alone good really, up there with the best serves ever. Such a waste of talent.

[jimlosaltos]

Worked for me! Not sure I've seen it on tour!

An example that came to mind was watching Nick Kyrgios dismantle Djokovic at Indian Wells (after beating him weeks earlier in Acapulco). Had Novak completely flummoxed on return.

Nick hit a 120 MPH second serve, then an 86 MPH kick first serve. Both left Djokovic motionless -- until he pivoted to scream at his box, of course.

I'd say some of Fed's first serves, when he slows down his wide slice to the deuce court, could be in the category of "change ups". ~90 MPH short and wide.

I also have a very vague memory of a doubles match where an unknown player was hitting some 60 MPH first serves that John McEnroe couldn't do anything with ... sorry, that's all I recall there.

[John Yandell]

Worked for me! Not sure I've seen it on tour!

[chux10sed]

Does he ever throw a "change-up" on his first serve? Very few pro's do this, it seems to me. Like a drop shot, a slow-speed serve on the first ball can be very effective, when done sparingly and with disguise.

[jschaff]

Actually I see Rune's serve differently that most here. I see it as close to Sampras' serve where the racket path completes early and quickly through the ball. The compression/decompression of the ball happens so quickly that there is maximum control. There is not much nuance here, as in Federer's serve, likely because he is still so young and get a big adrenal thrill with every serve. That is what being a kid is all about. But his efficiency in motion is supreme at his age on all of his strokes. His forehand and serve may look like high energy shots, but really they are just very efficient energy transfer shots.

Holger's supreme confidence and superior shot making at his age is responsible for his rocketing in the rankings. And he could be there for another 15 years easily.

[seano]

Here's a Youtube video of Alycia Parks working on her serve with Rick Macci, as a 10 year old. Basic instruction but interesting to see how her present serve still has the fundamentals. 2 points - 1) power position - the racquet head should be pointing straight up, not starting to drop behind the head. 2) motion doesn't need to be continuous, let the leg drive initiate the racquet drop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-gpfh_vV9A

[a2bruno]

If I’m not mistaken, Holger’s new serve motion is the product of coaching by Patrick Moratoglou. I recently watched several youtube videos of Holger receiving instruction from Patrick and the motion looks very similar. One difference I see is Patrick was coaching to toss the ball more in front toward the target than this video shows.