Nick Kyrgios reacts to Serena Williams' ex-coach Patrick Mouratoglou calling his serve the best of all time
Nick Kyrgios has shared a characteristic reaction after Patrick Mouratoglou ranked his serve as the best in men's tennis history.
Mouratoglou, Serena Williams' former coach, recently made a video ranking the best serves on the ATP tour. In fifth place he named Pete Sampras for his unpredictable serve, while Ivo Karlovic, who stands at 6'11, ranked fourth for his height advantage.
"Pete had the most unpredictable and unreadable serve both on first and second," Mouratoglou said.
"Thanks to his height (Ivo Karlovic), he made a great career mostly based on his serve," he added.
Mourataglou ranked Andy Roddick in third place for the 'violent' manner in which he served.
"Andy had the most violent way to hit a serve in the tennis history," he said.
John Isner took second place in Mouratoglou's ranking. The 52-year-old highlighted Isner's prowess in the 11-hour marathon match against Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon in 2010.
"He played the longest match in tennis history and he wasn't broken for eight hours in a row," the coach said.
Mouratoglou then ranked Nick Kyrgios as the player with the all-time best serve on the ATP tour. Explaining the rationale behind his decision, the Frenchman said that despite players returning much better today, Kyrgios's serve remains unreadable.
"Kyrgios is number one because players return much better today and he's undoubtedly the current best," he said.
Nick Kyrgios reacted to Patrick Mouratoglou's ranking with some cold-faced emojis, reposting the clip to his Instagram story.
Nick Kyrgios currently ranks second on the ATP serve leaderboard, with a 307.3 serve rating. John Isner occupies the top spot with a 309.9 rating.
Nick Kyrgios withdraws from Indian Wells and Miami Masters
Nick Kyrgios suffered a knee injury prior to the 2023 Australian Open which forced him to withdraw from the Grand Slam.
The Australian had intended to make his return to the ATP Tour at the Sunshine Double. But despite Kyrgios' manager Daniel Horsfall passing on encouraging news early in February, it seems Kyrgios' recovery has not progressed enough to enable him to compete in the Indian Wells and Miami Masters.
The World No. 22 reached the quarterfinals of the Indian Wells Masters in 2022, where he lost in a closely contested encounter with Rafael Nadal. Subsequently, he suffered a third-round exit at the 2022 Miami Masters, losing to Jannik Sinner in straight sets.