Carlos Alcaraz arrives in Turin having won Vienna and the Paris Masters back to back, yet John Isner thinks the Spaniard is still missing one weapon. On the Nothing Major podcast, the American former world No 8, whose own career was built on his serve, said Alcaraz’s serve “is not a top-10 serve by any means”.
What Isner said
Isner framed it as untapped potential rather than a flaw. “He can get better. His serve can still get better. I still think his serve can improve so much. You saw Novak improve his serve in the middle towards late on in his career, and he just went boom,” he said, in comments reported by Tennishead.
He then set the serve against the rest of Alcaraz’s game. “Carlos’ serve, for as incredible as he is, his serve is not a top-10 serve by any means. When you watch him from the back of the court, it is like, ‘How can anyone play this sport better?'”
The comparison with Djokovic is the interesting part. Isner’s point is that Djokovic’s serve became a real weapon only later in his career, and his suggestion is that Alcaraz could make the same leap, and that his ground game is already good enough for that to make a large difference.
Do the numbers agree?
Broadly, yes. Tennishead’s look at the ATP’s figures over the last 52 weeks puts Alcaraz 13th for serve rating. He is inside the top 10 for first-serve percentage (seventh), second-serve points won (eighth) and service games won (sixth), but only 39th for first-serve points won and 59th for aces per match.
That split tells its own story. Alcaraz lands a high share of first serves and rarely gets broken, but he wins fewer cheap points with the first serve than the best servers do. He holds because of what happens after the serve, not because of the serve itself. His return, by contrast, is the best on tour, with a return rating of 161.5.
The counter-view: the work has started
Alcaraz is not ignoring the issue. Before the Laver Cup in September he changed his service motion, lowering his ball toss and adjusting the position of his left foot, and he has spoken about wanting more balance in the action, as Tennis Majors has noted. Much of the 52-week data that Isner’s critique rests on predates that change.
Results since then also weaken the case that the serve is holding him back. Alcaraz beat Alex Michelsen, Taylor Fritz, Casper Ruud and Ben Shelton on his way to the Paris title, taking his Masters 1000 tally to nine, one behind Jannik Sinner. Shelton was beaten 7-6, 7-5 in the final, and Alcaraz had already spoken about how much he wanted that match, as we reported before the final.
Why Turin matters
The ATP Finals start on Sunday on an indoor hard court, where free points on serve tend to count for more. With Sinner absent through injury, Alcaraz goes in as the highest-profile name alongside world No 1 Alexander Zverev; our ATP Finals explainer sets out the format and the field.
Alcaraz is world No 3 and cannot finish the year above Sinner, but a strong week would bring him within touching distance of the Italian going into 2027.
Our verdict
Isner’s view is fair, and the statistics support it: Alcaraz holds serve as often as almost anyone, but he does it the hard way. The remodelled motion is the answer he has already chosen. If it adds a few free points a set, the most complete player on tour will also become one of the hardest to break, and Turin is the first proper test of whether that change is working.
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