Carlos Alcaraz debuted his new service motion in the first round of the Australian Open.
In his straight sets victory over Adam Walton, the Spaniard fired eight aces, while tallying a first serve percentage of 71%.
Earlier this month, a video emerged of Alcaraz testing a new serve in training ahead of the 2026 season, which fans quickly noticed was very similar to that of Novak Djokovic.
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Djokovic revealed that when he saw the video, he texted the six-time major champion straight away.
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“As soon as I saw it, I sent him a message. I said, you know, We have to speak about the copyrights,” said the Serb in his post-match press conference after beating Pedro Martinez in round one of the Australian Open.
“Then when I saw him here, I told him we have to talk about percentage of his winnings.
“Every ace I expect, you know, a tribute to me. Every ace that he makes here. Let’s see if he’s going to stick to the agreement (smiling).”
Djokovic earned a straight-sets win over Martinez to kick-start his campaign in Melbourne, which also marked his 100th Australian Open victory.
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In a post on Instagram, Serena Williams’ former coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, explained what Alcaraz has taken from Djokovic’s serve and implemented into his own.
He said: “If you have the feeling that Carlos Alcaraz changed his serve and copied a little bit Novak’s serve, you’re not totally wrong, and I want to look at it with you to see exactly what he picked from Novak’s serve.
“He said explicitly that his team didn’t want him to make a change, so they didn’t work on a change, but he did it himself.
“Most of the top players are scared to make changes, they’re always scared to lose something if they change anything. The champions, they want to progress all the time and they’re not scared to make changes.
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“The change that we’re talking about is on the serve and the fact that there is something similar to Novak. He drops the hand, lets the racket head go down at the very beginning of the motion.
“The goal is to create more whip effect and I think it makes a lot of sense to do it. Not all the players do it. I mean a lot of good servers don’t do that; they just have to whip effect at the end.
“His game is constantly, technically adapting and, in a way, moving. It’s not static. It’s always in movement. And I like to hear that. It’s, I think, very particular to him.”
Alcaraz’s next opponent at the Australian Open is ATP veteran Yannick Hanfmann.
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