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Nick Kyrgios was locked in with an intense focus on Sunday night as he broke Novak Djokovic to take the opening set in the men’s singles final at Wimbledon.
But even still, there was room for a cheeky underarm serve and a tweener from the Australian, even if former British tennis star Tim Henman was not a fan of the tactic.
While Kyrgios was relatively reserved in the opening set, he made sure to bring out an underarm serve early in the first set at All-England Club.
KYRGIOS VS DJOKOVIC LIVE: All the latest updates from the Wimbledon final
Djokovic though was more than ready to pounce, winning the point as Henman strongly claimed Kyrgios would be shooting himself in the foot if he persisted with the serve.
“Is that the first underarm serve in a Wimbledon final?” Henman said in commentary for the BBC. “I love the way Kyrgios has started.
“There is a bit of chat around the underarm serve, whether it’s disrespectful, but it’s nothing of the sort, it’s a legitimate tactic.
“But I think on a grass court it’s an appalling tactic. You are inviting someone to come to the net and attack you, so whether we see it again or not…”
In Kyrgios’ defence, he did not go back to the serve as often as he may in other matches, understanding of the need to only use it sparingly.
Todd Woodbridge appreciated that the serve usually worked as a “rhythm-breaker” for Kyrgios but believed it would not have the same success against Djokovic.
“You can see the issue with the underarm serve is that Novak wasn’t that deep when returning,” he said.
“So he got up to this quite early, then he is in the box seat really. But 40-0, he has brought the show early on.
“It depends on the returner’s position. [Rafael] Nadal would be another four metres deeper than where Novak has started today.”
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