“At the start of the match it was only about serving. If it had stayed like that, Kyrgios would have won” – Mouratoglou on the Wimbledon final
The French coach also believes Kyrgios made a tactical error by engaging in too many long rallies against Djokovic
Nick Kyrgios serves against Novak Djokovic in the men’s singles final of Wimbledon 2022
Image Credit: Antoine Couvercelle / Panoramic
Noted tennis coach Patrick Mouratolgou (one of the co-founders of Tennis Majors) opined that Nick Kyrgios would have won Sunday’s Wimbledon final if it remained a battle between his serve against Novak Djokovic‘s return.
Kyrgios used his big serve to great effect during the first set of the final winning it 6-4 but Djokovic bounced back to claim the next three sets 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 to win his seventh men’s singles title at Wimbledon and his 21st Grand Slam singles title.
“In the first set, Novak was really struggling to return Kyrgios’ serve. Once he got into the match, he started to read the serves much better,” Mouratoglou, who now coaches former women’s world No 1 Simona Halep, said in our video program “The Eye of the Coach”. “He started to anticipate a lot, like choosing a side and he could finally break him several times. Most of Nick’s service games were more difficult than in the first set.”
“Novak’s ability to return was very important because then, the key of the match became the rallies. At the start of the match, it was not about rallying because it was only about serving. If it had stayed like that, Nick would have won, for sure. But as we know, Novak is probably the best returner in the world and maybe of all time,” he continued.
“I believe that in the final Nick Kyrgios accepted to rally much too much” – Mouratoglou
Mouratoglou went on to state that Kyrgios should have not engaged in long rallies with Djokovic as that helped the Serb find his rhythm as the match went on.
“I believe that in that final he accepted to rally much too much. He accepted to go into long rallies, to play soft, to wait for the right ball to go, which makes sense in general, but against Novak in a Grand Slam final, I would think that he would take many more risks and create much more uncertainty,” Mouratoglou said.
“Every time he (Nick) was hitting harder. Novak was kind of trying to put the ball back. When [Kyrgios] was playing at a normal pace, Novak was able to move the ball around and make him work.”
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