For those people who do not follow tennis closely, the name Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard will surely be unknown. However, those who followed the last edition of Wimbledon already got some clues about the young Frenchman’s potential, and will probably be amazed. Because here is the last bomber. “I know my style is risky, but I’m not going to change. Regardless of how the score goes, I like to take risks,” he has been proclaiming since he began to show his head in the elite, last season, when he unsheathed and triumphed against the odds in Lyon, then excelled in the All England and left another footprint in Basel. From one end of the course to the other, serves, serves and more direct serves, aces everywhere. And along the way, the realization that tennis has found another exceptional bomber, now that the distinguished John Isner (14,411) or Ivo Karlovic (13,728) have paraded.
“I’m big and tall, I can’t move like the rest. So I try to be as aggressive as possible,” defines the Frenchman, a hulk of 2.03 tall and over 100 kilos who these days has shown off his whip in Brisbane — 56 points in two games, before landing in the quarters—and whose emergence was recognized by the ATP at the end of the last year; After all, he started 2024 competing in challengers and he finished it with two titles in his pocket, in addition to a notable promotion to top-30 of the circuit and the trail of blows that dazzled the discoverers. Today, its maximum peak is 244.6 km/h—still far from the 263.4 reached in his day by the Australian Sam Groth—and its emergence puts the strongest on alert, taking into account that it has already defeated six of the seven rivals of the top-20 those he has faced so far.
The record is another wake-up call and underlines the flight that the third best French representative of the moment is taking, installed in 31st place and who at 21 years old appears as a threat in the tables. Australian Nick Kyrgios, the first victim in Brisbane before Frances Tiafoe also bit the dust, knows this well. “He has found a style and has committed himself to it. It’s going to hurt. It doesn’t lose speed at any time. I have played against Karlovic, Isner or Raonic, all great servers, but he has the best serve by far,” highlights the Oceanic, who in turn focuses on the disconcerting proposal of Mpetshi Perricard, whose wrist does not tremble to make the second serves with the same intention as the first. That is to say, subtracting against him, right and backhanded with one hand, with fast and fluid mechanics, means something like the goalkeeper facing a penalty.
“He doesn’t have a high ball launch, and it comes out of his hand very quickly,” describes the renowned Brad Gilbert, coach and analyst, in statements collected by the ATP. “People wondered: why didn’t Karlovic take two first serves? Because no one has done it. And maybe it’s him [Perricard] the first”, continues the coach, before considering whether the Frenchman will be able to maintain the dynamic in the most delicate moments and against the most powerful players: “Could he maintain a rhythm like that against Sinner or Alcaraz? Would you take those second serves against them on a break point, or execute them without committing a double fault during a tie-breaker?
Maximum quality
In 2024, Mpetshi Perricard signed 532 aces in 28 games, with an average of 19. Double that of Alexander Zverev, for example. The returns obtained with first and second -80% and 53% respectively-, as well as the harvest of games and total points -89% and 70%-, or the 51 aces which he managed to achieve in a single match, against Sebastian Korda in London – above the 50 set by Roger Federer, although well below Isner’s 113 or his compatriot Nicolas Mahut’s 103 – led him towards a new condition that reinforces in these first steps of 2025. Such is its expertise with the service that the official metrics give it a 9.5 out of 10 in terms of quality, prevailing over the 8.87 from Zverev, 8.77 from Matteo Berrettini, 8.76 from Hubert Hurkacz or 8.67 from Taylor Fritz.
Now, this path of risk that he travels also requires a toll that he, without a doubt, is willing to pay. With an average of 5.5 per game, he led the double faults section. “I watched a lot of Isner and also Raonic when I was younger. “So I didn’t think that now I would play like that, like them, but yes, I was inspired by some aspects and I applied them to my tennis,” says Mpetshi Perricard, who on that afternoon against Korda saved the 11 break options available to the American. . “Guys like Isner, Karlovic or him only think about the acelike Roddick, while Zverev thinks in percentages,” says Gilbert. And the protagonist concludes, faster (29 games) than Isner (31), Raonic (32) or Kyrgios (33) when it comes to crossing the barrier of 500 direct aces: “There is no fear in my mentality.”
Tennis, then, blesses the arrival: danger, Perricard brings out.
