Young star Kalin Ivanovski has divided opinion by imitating the likes of Nick Kyrgios and Andy Murray by pulling off a stunning tweener ace to win his boys’ singles second round match at Wimbledon.
The 18-year-old finished his match with Mexico’s Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez in style to book his place in the third round with a 6-1 6-2 victory. On match point, Ivanovski showed off his confidence by nailing an audacious tweener underarm serve which Australian star Kyrgios would have been proud of.
The move caught both Pacheco Mendez off guard as well as the crowd, but the Macedonian held up his fist as he gestured to the crowd in delight. He then shook hands with the Mexican 11th seed at the net and will face eighth seed Edas Butvilas in the third round.
Ivanovski appeared to channel his inner Kyrgios for the point and the move has unsurprisingly led to a divided reaction online. Si-moan (@simoaner) said: “If he did that to me, he’d be wearing his racket.”
David V (@chopper248) simply added ‘#Cocky’ while Right Into Sport (@rightintosport) wrote: “Be throwing windmills at the net after that.”
Earlier in the tournament, Kyrgios made it clear he isn't best pleased with commentators who addressed his underarm serve different to that of Murray, who stunned commentators and fans by pulling off the trick against James Duckworth in the first round of his 2022 Wimbledon tournament. The World No.40, who has somewhat helped normalise the underarm serve, said: “I remember the first time I did it was against Nadal and Acapluco and the commentators said ‘Oh what’s he done here? It’s so disrespectful, why would you do that’?'
“And then now it’s like ‘Oh Andy Murray so smart.’ Everyone does it now and it’s like they’re a genius. I’m glad that people are realising there’s another way to win the point but I think it’s just hilarious.”
Do you think the underarm tweener serve is disrespectful or a valid tactic at the highest level? Let us know in the comments section.
Fans questioned the tactic when Murray used it, and the Brit rejected any notion of disrespect. The two-time Wimbledon champion believes the move is a valid way to catch out an opponent who is positioned beyond the baseline.
“I don't know why people have ever found it potentially disrespectful or... I don't know,” Murray said. “I’ve never understood that. It's a legitimate way of serving.
“I would never use an underarm serve if someone was standing on the baseline because I think it's a stupid idea because they're going to track it down and it's easy to get. If they stand four or five metres behind the baseline, then why would you not do that to try to bring them forward if they're not comfortable returning there? Tactically it's a smart play.
“No one says it's disrespectful for someone to return from six metres, whatever, five metres behind the baseline to try to get an advantage. So I used it not to be disrespectful to him but to say, If you're going to step further back to return the serve to give yourself more time, then I'm going to exploit that.”
