Home » Tennis » Wimbledon » Can you serve underarm in Tennis? Nick Kyrgios’ underarm serve at Wimbledon sparks debate

Earlier on Saturday, Nick Kyrgios pulled out an impressive underarm serve against Stefanos Tsitsipas causing a stir among tennis fans.

Nick Kyrgios and Stefanos Tsitsipas were involved in a tense third-round tennis clash at Wimbledon 2022 on Saturday. The Australian eventually came out on top by beating the Greek star 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7) in what was a rather ill-tempered affair.

Image Credits – TOI

However, one of the many talking points during the match arose when Kyrgios pulled out an incredible underarm serve in the first set. The Aussie didn’t just go underhand; he also went between his legs for a “tweener” serve. Kyrgios was up 40-0 in the game and clearly managed to catch his opponent off guard.

A rather frustrated Tsitsipas hit into the net to lose the game, allowing the two to stay on serve at 3-3 but the Greek star won the first set of the match. Nevertheless, fans on social media were curious to know whether the rare underarm serve in tennis was legal or not.

Is the underarm serve in tennis allowed?

The underarm tennis is allowed and completely legal in tennis. Tennis rules state that as long as the ball is hit with the racquet prior to hitting the ground, it doesn’t matter if the serve was released in an upward or downward motion.

However, some top tennis professionals consider the underarm serve to be rather disrespectful. This is probably what led to Tsitsipas getting rather frustrated at Kyrgios after the latter opted to pull out an underarm serve at their Wimbledon encounter.

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