Present this year at Wimbledon to commentate on the tournament on ESPN, the American John Isner, world number 8 in 2018, 2.08 m, and author of 14,470 aces during his career, admits to having a certain fondness for the game of Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, whom he met at Roland-Garros a few years ago and who made a strong impression on him on Tuesday against Sebastian Korda.
“What do you think of Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard’s tennis, who seems on the verge of taking over from you in the category of very long servers?
I enjoy watching him play and I find the really encouraging thing about him is that you can clearly see that he is a work in progress. He has a very good forehand and, even though his backhand will probably remain his weak side, it will continue to improve. But what amazes me is how well he moves.
Compared to his height (2.03 m), you mean?
Yes, and as he also knows how to play the exchange sometimes, when he needs it. He will be extremely hard to face for many years.
At 20, where were you in terms of mastering your service and its use?
I wasn’t quite as accomplished physically as he already is. He seems mature to me in that regard. He’s four years ahead of me, I think. It was around 24 that I started to feel really strong.
“It requires a lot of work up front. Being big is not enough.”
How easy, or not, is it to serve that many aces for that long?
Everyone has their strengths. It will be easy, for example, for Novak (Djokovic), to return so well for so long. But remember that to put all that into practice, it requires a lot of work up front. Being tall is not enough. Sometimes, it is even difficult for us to feel totally comfortable with our bodies. We do not wake up one morning and hit aces by snapping our fingers. I imagine that Giovanni has been working specifically on this shot for more than ten years now.
What do you think of his serving technique?
He has a great movement. Personally I wouldn’t touch anything about his technique, it seems perfect to me. And he has shown that he can already find all the zones. He also hits very hard on the second serve with little waste. No, in terms of movement, nothing to complain about. During my career, apart from a slight modification of the position of my feet, I had not changed anything either.
