How Alcaraz has served an ideal begin to his 2026 season

Past The Numbers

How Alcaraz has served an ideal begin to his 2026 season

Infosys ATP Past The Numbers analyses the Spaniard’s serving success

February 25, 2026

Carlos Alcaraz is serving his method to success.

Already the No. 1 participant within the PIF ATP Rankings, the Spaniard has made one of the best begin to a season in his profession. Alcaraz is an ideal 12-0 and has already lifted trophies on the Australian Open and in Doha.

An Infosys ATP Past The Numbers evaluation reveals that improved serving has underpinned the 22-year-old’s success, serving to him race out of the 2026 gate.

That isn’t to say Alcaraz has been struggling on serve not too long ago. Infosys ATP Stats present that final 12 months, he was sixth on the ATP Tour in service video games received at 87.6 per cent.

This 12 months, the World No. 1 has merely discovered a brand new degree, making marginal positive factors throughout the board on serve to assert 90.8 per cent of his service video games by means of 12 matches, resulting in 12 wins regardless of barely lower-than-average success on return.

“I believe everybody has to make modifications, small particulars. For me the serve is one thing that I actually wish to be higher yearly, in each match,” Alcaraz mentioned on the Australian Open. “I’m simply placing fixed work on the serve.”

Alcaraz’s Serving Statistics

 Serving Stats
 Profession
 2026

 First-Serve %
 65%
 68.3%

 First-Serve Pts Gained %
 72.2%
 74.3%

 Second-Serve Pts Gained %
 56%
 59.4%

 Aces Per Match
 4.3
 6.1

 Service Video games Gained
 84.6%
 90.8%

Fairly than a large step ahead in anyone serving statistic, Alcaraz has been doing all the pieces just a bit bit higher in comparison with 2025. The Spaniard this season is touchdown the next charge of first serves (64.2 % to 68.3%), profitable barely extra first-serve factors (74.1% to 74.3%) and second-serve factors (56.8% to 59.4%), and hitting extra aces per match on common (5.8 to six.1).

It is very important notice that in 2025, Alcaraz knocked Jannik Sinner off the highest of the PIF ATP Rankings and claimed ATP Yr-Finish No. 1 offered by PIF honours for the second time. Final season was an amazing one for the Spaniard, however he continues to boost the bar.

What Alcaraz does notably properly on serve is defend his second supply. As of Monday, Alcaraz ranked third on document by profitable 56 per cent of his profession second-serve factors, solely trailing Rafael Nadal (57.1%) and Roger Federer (56.8%). This 12 months, he has claimed 59.4 per cent of his second-serve factors, properly above these figures.

The World No. 1 doesn’t blow opponents off the court docket together with his serve — his profitable charge of 74.3 per cent behind his first serve is forty fifth on the ATP Tour amongst qualifying gamers this season. However Alcaraz has made incremental enhancements to a recreation with which he was already on the high of the game.

In three of his 5 matches eventually week’s Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha — towards Arthur Rinderknech, Karen Khachanov and Arthur Fils within the remaining — Alcaraz didn’t drop serve. Excluding his semi-final victory towards Andrey Rublev, through which he misplaced serve 4 instances, the Spaniard has received 92.6 per cent of his service video games this season.

The return is the place the 22-year-old has traditionally stood out, ending among the many high three gamers on the ATP Tour in return video games received in every of the previous 5 seasons. Though he ranks second within the class thus far this season, his 30.3 return video games received proportion is definitely under his 31 per cent profession mark.

However regardless of that, small enhancements on serve have led to an ideal begin in his outcomes, which counts essentially the most.