After disappearing from the professional scene for the best part of 18 months, Nick Kyrgios would undoubtedly have prayed for a straight-forward first-round at the Brisbane International.
Ideally, an opponent who would offer the former Wimbledon finalist time and rhythm to ease back into the flow.
His match-up against Frenchman Giovanni Mpetschi Perricard presents the complete opposite — an absolute nightmare and up there for worst-case scenarios.
Perricard, 21, accelerated to new heights on the ATP Tour this year, climbing from 205th in the world to a career-high No.30 and claiming five titles, including a 500 event at the Swiss Indoors.
Spoken in a similar vein to NBA star Victor Wembanyama, Perricard's 203cm standing (6'8") makes his game style all the more frightening and intimidating.
Across the 2024 ATP Tour, he averaged 19 aces per match — almost six more than former world No.6 Hubert Hurkacz.
According to the official ATP statistics, Perricard achieved the best serve quality with a rating of 9.50, edging out big servers Alexander Zverev (8.87) and Matteo Berrettini (8.77).
Multiple metrics to determine service quality include first serve percentage, percentage of first serve points won, percentage of second serve points won and percentage of service games won.
However, it's not just the execution that has the tennis world in awe, but also his courage to hit a massive second serve at every opportunity — and that could be a game changer.
Perricard's second serve sits at above 200km/h on average, which is a simply insane number when you take into account the accumulated 15 double faults he tallied throughout five matches at the Swiss Indoors.
2003 US Open champion Andy Roddick, regarded as one of the best servers of all time, is adamant that the young Frenchman has all the tools to transform the sport.
"The stat which blew my mind was that against Shelton [in the Basel final], his average second serve speed was 129mph (208km/h)," the American said on his Served with Andy Roddick podcast.
"There comes a time when people change the game.
"My mind goes to [Jimmy] Connors, coming out with the Wilson T2000, [Boris] Becker comes in and serves his way to Wimbledon, Rafa [Nadal] comes in and the RPM’s change.
"This guy was going 145mph first serve, 130mph second serve, he was hitting second serves in the second set breaker against Shelton trying to win a tournament at 142mph.
"It’s a joke, it’s different."
Roddick then went on to admit that he pondered the idea of going all-out with 'two first serves' but didn't share Perricard's bravery.
"I think this is the first one where it's a real conversation where it is statistically responsible to hit two first serves," he added.
"Is he going to win 60 per cent of his points if he hits two first serves? He's gonna lose like seven per cent of points if he makes it.
"Someone's gonna do it. It is gonna happen. I think this is the guy that's gonna do it.
"Perricard, I'm telling you, it was an eye-opening performance this week [In Basel]."
Funnily enough, it's Perricard's upcoming opponent in Kyrgios who is arguably the closest to pulling off a second serve bomb — serving as if he has zero pressure.
The difference, however, is Perricard's precision, accuracy and, most importantly, consistency, combining a healthy mix of ingredients to serve his way out of any sort of trouble against any player in the world.
2025 will shape up to be a massive season for Perricard to determine whether his big all-round game can invariably trouble the sport's highest calibre.
If it can, then we may well have a generational talent on our hands.
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