Occasionally in sport you see something so stupendous you want to simultaneously gasp, laugh, and shake your head. Before asking: “Did I really just see that?”
And so to No 1 Court, where the 6ft 8in Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard sent down a 153mph thunderbolt to record the fastest serve in Wimbledon’s 145-year history – beating Taylor Dent’s record by 5mph.
For good measure, he also powered in a 146mph second serve before predicting it was possible for someone like him to serve far, far quicker in the future. “The players are stronger,” he said. “They have bigger shoulders, so I don’t know – 260 or 270km/h (161-167mph) is maybe the next one.”
Ultimately it was all to no avail as the 21-year-old lost an epic to the fifth seed, Taylor Fritz, 6-7 (6), 6-7 (8), 6-4, 7-6 (6), 6-4. But Mpetshi Perricard’s serve provoked similar levels of awe to watching Mike Tyson’s volcanic uppercuts, Jonah Lomu running over opponents and Usain Bolt obliterating the 100m world record while slowing down. It really was that special.
The irony is that while Mpetshi Perricard hit 37 aces in the match, his record-breaking 153mph serve was actually returned and he lost the point. “I didn’t check the speed, to be honest,” he admitted afterwards. “It comes naturally. But we don’t train this part of my game a lot. It’s about 90% on the baseline, 10% on the serve.”
The high-quality match resumed on Tuesday at two sets all, having been suspended 45 minutes before the 11pm curfew. Fritz had wanted to play on, feeling that he had the momentum. But the 17-hour break did nothing to disturb the familiar pattern with both players continuing to dominate serve in the fifth set. The American was no slouch in that regard, sending down 29 aces across the match and denying his opponent a single breakpoint.
It was a match of impossibly fine margins. Yet at 5-4 down in the fifth set, Mpetshi Perricard’s serve suddenly let him down. He started with a double fault, before failing to find a first serve in the next three points. Fritz scented blood. And when Mpetshi Perricard sent a forehand long – one of 63 unforced errors across the match – it was over.
Yet afterwards the Lyon-born youngster promised he would stick with his no compromises approach. “I don’t know if you saw the match, but every time there is a rally and it’s over five shots, I’m not the best one,” he said, smiling. “I think it’s better for me to play under three or four shots. So that’s why I’m going full-out sometimes.”
He also believes that he can develop a game that will one day enable him to win Wimbledon. “I think it’s a dream of all the other players in the draw to win this grand slam, so yeah,” he replied.
Fritz, meanwhile, was delighted to get through to the second round, where he will face the dangerous Canadian Gabriel Diallo. But when asked what it was like to survive facing the biggest server in tennis, the American was surprisingly sanguine. “I don’t really mind it because it actually gives me absolutely zero time to think,” he said. “Normally when I start thinking, that’s when I mess things up. I’d much rather deal with the speed than the spot.”
And before he left, Fritz even had some words of advice for his opponent. “If he did 153mph, he could potentially do close to 160 in the right conditions,” he said. “The question I have is: Why? There’s no point. It’s much better to hit 140 to a spot than just hit the ball and serve as hard as you can.”
Mpetshi Perricard might not necessarily agree.