Though Carlos Alcaraz is currently playing in a tournament, he did play a high-intensity exhibition match against home favourite Alex de Minaur.

The pair produced some spectacular tennis in the two-hour contest, and something was different about the 21-year-old’s serve.

What change did Carlos Alcaraz make against Alex de Minaur in the Rod Laver exhibition match?

Alcaraz ended 2024 with a loss at the Paris Masters and he failed to reach the final four at the ATP Finals.

He is now firmly focused on 2025 and aims to improve aspects of his game as he bids to catch World number one Jannik Sinner.

Alcaraz spoke about improving his consistency and one of the ways in which he can achieve that is on serve. During his exhibition match against De Minaur on Rod Laver Arena, it was noticed how the World number three is using different variations of his serve.

“Carlos Alcaraz is using a fair bit more variation on serve. He’s adding his cutters and his sliders, which takes speed off the ball,” the commentator said with the score locked at 5-5.

“We’ve all seen him use that kick serve as a first serve, and taking speed off because he perhaps worried he is giving Alex too much rhythm.”

What does Carlos Alcaraz’s coach think he can improve on serve?

Alcaraz’s coach Juan Carlos Ferrero was courtside to watch his exhibition contest against De Minaur.

Alcaraz’s first serve was on average approximately 10km slower than his opponents, which further illustrated how he was experimenting with his serve.

As Ferrero watched the action unfold, he told Andrea Petkovic the specific things about Alcaraz’s serve that they have been working on.

“Carlos is still very young. He needs to improve a lot of things,” he said. “Consistency and focus are some for three things because sometimes he can be a little bit up and down in the matches. But he knows and he is working on that, and we want to see him playing very good tennis.” 

Ferrero added: “We work a little bit more on his rhythm because before, he was stopping the movement. But now when he starts the movement, he follows through and finishes the move.

“Also the bounce of the ball is something he has to improve and be more consistent. He has the speed but not the consistency on the first serve.”

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