Consciously or not, every tennis player has specific habits or “rituals”, whether it’s before they walk onto the court, or after. Many, if not most have service rituals or things that they do right before they serve.
For some, it’s just a matter of tapping the ball. For others, like Rafael Nadal for example, there is a long list of actions that must be completed before he is finally ready to start the point.
Canadian player, Denis Shapovalov has a very unusual service ritual that you may or may not have noticed.
“I drop the ball between my legs – I feel like it calms your body and your mind. Of course, it’s also about muscle memory – the moment I perform this movement, my body feels that it’s ready to serve and play.”
Watch the video above and check out the service rituals of some of the ATP tour’s biggest names, including Roger Federer, Juan Martin del Potro, Andy Murray, Daniil Medvedev, and Novak Djokovic.
