Why Novak Djokovic’s serving (not his return) helped him stay at the top of the sport | ATP Journey

Exceeded the number

Why Djokovic’s serving (rather than his return) helped him stay at the top of the sport

Infosys ATP exceeds the number to check Djokovic’s service success

October 1, 2025

Novak Djokovic has long been regarded as one of the best returnees in tennis history. Although the Serbian still performed well in that part of the game, he still maintained the highest level of the sport due to his optimization.

Beyond digital analysis, the Serbian won a higher service rate in 2025 than two seasons outside his career, according to Infosys ATP.

In the past 15 of the past 18 years, the world’s fourth-ranked Djokovic has ranked in the top three in the year-end PIF ATP rankings, including winning a record eight ATP end-of-year first place by PIF Honors. He won better than the better service game this season.

Service statistics by Novak Djokovic

Djokovic’s best service game won percentages in his career, which was in 2015 when he was ranked fifth on the ATP Tour at 89.5%. In 2023, he ranked second, behind Stefanos Tsitsipas, at 88.4%. This year, the Serbs ranked fourth with 88.3%, trailing only Jannik Sinner (91.3%), Taylor Fritz (90%) and Reilly Opelka (88.7%).

The 38-year-old entered the Rolex Shanghai Masters with a professional average of 86.1%. His career also outperformed the percentage of first-time service (66.6% to 64.9%) and first-time service score (76.4% to 74.2%) while winning the second-time service score (55.3% to 55.5%).

But the key trend is that he has three of his six best seasons in the service game since early 2022.

Djokovic’s best season (wins through service games)

The surge in Djokovic’s service is not limited to that statistics either. Prior to 2021, the 100-time Tour-level titration list has never won over 76% of his first-place score in a season. This year, he worked hard to do this for the fourth time.

In his career, the 40-time ATP Masters 1000 champion averaged 5.5 ac per game. This season, he averaged 8.4 aces per game.

According to Fritz, Djokovic was able to combine his delivery itself with the baseline game, creating a difficult problem to solve his opponent.

“I think what makes him hard is that he’s doing well, he’s doing well in second place. It’s hard to use his serve because he’s also got a lot of returns [playing] Fritz said before Djokovic in this year’s U.S. Open quarterfinals. “He’s great at serving. So, I think it’s hard to get in touch with him the way he does sometimes.”

From 2010 to 2021, Djokovic is one of the top three players on the ATP Tour, and he qualifies for the rankings every year. In those years, he never scored a game that won a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that would get a game that

But in 2022 he ranked fourth in both categories, then won three seats in 2023 (second to fifth) and six higher so far this year (fourth to 10th).

Djokovic’s return is still a force, but his serve is a standout today.