The Frenchman has had one of the most impressive breakout seasons we’ve seen on the ATP Tour in recent times, rising from 205th in the world at the start of 2024, to 31st following his win in Basel.

His title last week wasn’t his only triumph of the season however, as Perricard won his first ATP title earlier this year at the Lyon Open, beating Thomas Martin Etcheverry in the final.

The 21-year-old, then went on to have an impressive showing at Wimbledon, where he reached the fourth round, falling to eventual semi-finalist Lorenzo Musetti.

His results certainly haven’t gone unnoticed and one tennis legend believes that Perricard is changing the game of tennis as we know it.

Andy Roddick says Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard is changing tennis with his serve

2003 US Open champion Andy Roddick is widely considered as one of the biggest servers the sport has ever seen.

However, Perricard, standing at 6ft8 inches tall, has perhaps already eclipsed Roddick’s serving prowess during his brief stint as a professional.

The American spoke to Perricard’s serving talents on his Served with Andy Roddick podcast.

“The stat which blew my mind was that against [Ben] Shelton his average second serve speed was 129mph,” he said.

“I’m guessing that is faster than my average first serve speed for a lot of years, and I could throw it.”

Roddick went on to say that Perricard’s serving talents could signify another change in tennis.

“There comes a time when people change the game,” he said.

“My mind goes to [Jimmy] Connors, coming out with the Wilson T2000, [Boris] Becker comes in and serves his way to Wimbledon, Rafa [Nadal] comes in and the RPM’s change.

“Perricard is the first guy, who can statistically responsibly just hit two first serves.

“This guy was going 145mph first serve, 130mph second serve, he was hitting second serves in the second set breaker against Shelton trying to win a tournament at 142mph.

“It’s a joke, it’s different.”

Does Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard have the best serve on the ATP Tour?

Roddick certainly had some high praise for the young Frenchman, but how does he stack up against the rest of the ATP Tour?

Serve rating combines several different metrics including first serve percentage, percentage of first serve points won, percentage of second serve points won, and percentage of service games won, before adding and subtracting the number of average aces and number of average double faults per match.

Perricard leads the ATP Tour as the only player with a serve rating over 300, and has over four more aces per match than his closest challenger Hubert Hurkacz.

His double faults are unsurprisingly a lot higher than the rest of the players on tour, but if he continues to serve as well as he did in Basel, they won’t make too much of a difference.

Perricard beat Frances Tiafoe 6-7, 7-6, 6-3 in the first round of the Paris Masters, and will return to action to face Vienna Open finalist Karen Khachanov on Wednesday.

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