Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard

Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard owns the fastest serve in professional tennis, and at 6'8" he built an entire identity around it. Born in Lyon in July 2003 to a former semi-pro footballer father and volleyball-playing mother, he came up the slow way — he won his first Challenger title at the 2023 León Open and received a wildcard for the 2023 French Open for his Grand Slam debut. The pedigree was flagged earlier: he won the boys' doubles title at the 2021 French Open with compatriot Arthur Fils, and reached the boys' singles semifinals there, losing to Fils.

The serve is the whole package. In 2025 he led the ATP Tour in average first-serve speed at 134.4 mph, with Reilly Opelka a distant second at 130.6 mph. What separates him is the refusal to ease off: rather than prioritising safety on second serves as most players would, he doubles down on aggression, averaging a fearless 117 mph on his second delivery in 2025. The radar peak came at grass's biggest stage — he hit the fastest serve ever recorded at Wimbledon, clocking 153 mph in a 2025 first-round match against Taylor Fritz, breaking the previous mark of 148 mph set by Taylor Dent in 2010. The catch, and the angle that defines him: Fritz returned that 153 mph rocket and won the point, then came back from two sets down to win.

The breakout was 2024. He started the year outside the top 200 and ended it ranked No. 31, winning two ATP Tour titles and three Challenger titles. He took the Lyon ATP 250 in his hometown as a wildcard, then prevailed 6-4, 7-6(4) over Ben Shelton to become Basel's lowest-ranked champion since 1975, hitting 22 aces without dropping serve all week. Voters named him ATP Most Improved Player. He pushed further in 2025: a maiden Masters 1000 quarterfinal in Shanghai over Fritz for his first top-10 win, and a European Open semifinal beating Lorenzo Musetti.

After hitting a career-high No. 29 in 2025, Mpetshi Perricard leans on that thunderous serve heading into 2026, now ranked 93rd — the year's challenge is converting unbreakable hold percentages into the return games and consistency that lift a server-specialist out of the rankings churn.