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Kyrgios served up 25 aces to beat Djokovic in
their first career meeting in Acapulco in 2017, days before
firing down 14 aces to secure his second victory over the
20-times Grand Slam winner at Indian Wells.
The two have not faced each other since, meaning Kyrgios leads
2-0 in their head-to-head.
Tennis strategy analyst O'Shannessy, who was a part of
Djokovic's team for both of those matches, said the world number
three had asked him to analyse the Australian's serve and
identify any clues that could help him to read it better.
"Whether it's his feet, the ball toss -- anything different or
any tell with where he's serving," Australia's Sydney Morning
Herald quoted O'Shannessy as saying. "I ran overlay of Nick
serving out wide and down the middle, and there's no difference.
"Novak was adamant there has to be something that you can read
from Nick's serve, but we found literally nothing. The wide
serve and the T serve happen off the exact same toss. And
because Nick's motion is so quick, it's unreadable.
"And Novak fears that service game. He absolutely does and
that's self-evident with Novak nominating Nick as the best serve
he's played against."
O'Shannessy added that Kyrgios's ability to vary the speed of
his second serves could also prove to be a challenge for
Djokovic when they meet in the final of the grasscourt Grand
Slam on Sunday.
"That second serve is arguably a bigger weapon because Nick's
confidence and willingness to switch things up, no-one else does
that when really they should be trying it," O'Shannessy said.
"He's got the game to really worry Djokovic and really go all
the way."
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Clare Fallon)
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