CoCo Vandeweghe names the player with the best serve on the WTA and compares her to Serena Williams

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Serena Williams had one of the greatest serves in the history of the WTA Tour.

The serve is one of the most important shots in tennis, and can really determine how successful a player’s career is.

World number two Coco Gauff has recently struggled on her serve, hitting 16 double faults in her latest match.

While Gauff’s woes have been very public, another player has now been told she has the best serve on the WTA Tour.

CoCo Vandeweghe compares Elena Rybakina’s serve to Serena Williams

That player is former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, who has showcased her serve at the Cincinnati Open.

When trying to build their perfect WTA player on Tennis Channel, former top 10 player CoCo Vandeweghe claimed that Rybakina has the best serve on tour.

Vandeweghe also compared Rybakina to Serena Williams after her win over world number one Aryna Sabalenka in Cincinnati.

“I’m going to go with Elena Rybakina, I think we were talking about this yesterday, Chanda [Rubin],” said Vandeweghe. “I think with the serve, not only do you have to have the free point ability, which she does, but you also have to have that clutch factor.

“And we were talking about that, when I was playing it was Serena Williams, if she needed an ace she was pulling it out of her back pocket facing break point down. And we were watching Elena Rybakina do that time and time again against Aryna Sabalenka, so I’m choosing Rybakina.”

For some of the other aspects of the game, Chanda Rubin and Lindsay Davenport disagreed with Vandeweghe, but they all unanimously agreed that Rybakina is head and shoulders above in the serving department.

“I’m going Rybakina as well, Lindsay isn’t available because she’s not available so I couldn’t pick her,” said Rubin.

“But Rybakina, I mean she’s got this repeatable motion as well, you want a serve that’s going to hold up under pressure, you want to be able to hit the different spots, but it has got to be repeatable and she has that.”

Davenport followed, “I think we are all pretty unanimous on Rybakina, not only is her speed and placement, but she also has the variety, she can also slice, she can also kick. If she’s healthy, she has the best serve in tennis.”

Elena Rybakina’s serve at the Cincinnati Open this year

Rybakina’s serve has been highly effective at the Cincinnati Open, with victories over Sabalenka, Madison Keys and Elise Mertens.

Despite the praise she has received, Rybakina has only just hit over half of her first serves in the court.

However, the Kazakhstani has still managed to hit an average of over 10 aces per match and won nearly 80% of her points on first serve.

These statistics are slightly worsened by the aforementioned match with Mertens, where Rybakina hit an uncharacteristic amount of double faults.

Rybakina will be hoping her serve will be effective against Iga Swiatek, as she looks to improve her poor semifinal record in 2025.