US Open 2025: Carlos Alcaraz Serve Plus One Masterclass

The match that clarified a modern blueprint

Carlos Alcaraz’s four-set win over Jannik Sinner in the 2025 US Open final was more than a title. It was a clear, repeatable plan for holding serve against an elite returner. He was broken only once and dropped nine points on first serve, finishing a tournament in which he won 98 of 101 service games. Those numbers reveal a system: win the serve pattern before the rally starts, then cash the first forehand. Coaches and competitive juniors should study this match film. See the official summaries in the ATP match report and the US Open match recap.

This article unpacks four pieces of Alcaraz’s blueprint, then turns it into two step-by-step drills and a simple gear tweak you can apply this week. For a deeper overview of the same theme, see our internal breakdown, the US Open 2025 serve blueprint.

• First-serve targets by score
• Plus-one forehand court coverage
• Return-position adjustments that reinforced his holds
• Between-point cues that stabilized execution under stress

Along the way, you will see actions you can take on court tomorrow, even if you do not serve 130 miles per hour.

First-serve targets by score

The serve plus one is simple to describe and hard to repeat: earn a short ball with your serve, then hit an aggressive first groundstroke into space. Alcaraz used the scoreboard like a script. He did not hit the same serve all the time. He picked targets that maximized forehand starts and minimized Sinner’s ability to counter with his own forehand return.

Here is the practical map you can coach by situation. Right-hander vs right-hander, deuce court first.

0-0, 15-0, 30-15: set the pattern without revealing the whole playbook

• Deuce court: wide slider that pulls the return off the doubles alley. The goal is not an ace. It is a slow, waist-high reply to the middle that you can step around and drive inside out with the forehand.
• Ad court: body serve that jams the backhand hip. The aim is to draw a blocked chip and start neutral or slightly ahead, not to go for the T winner yet.

Why this works: early in games, you want to establish the forehand start and gather a read on the return swing shape without risking a narrow miss at the T.

30-30 and deuce: earn the forehand at all costs

• Deuce court: repeat the wide slider, but shape it lower and faster. If you tug the contact to the outside third of the box, the first ball is almost guaranteed to be a forehand inside the baseline.
• Ad court: sneak the serve up the T more often. Against a right-hander, that pins the backhand return to the middle, which is a perfect feed for your plus-one forehand either inside in or inside out.

Coach’s cue: 30-30 is mini break point. Hit the serve that most reliably gives you a forehand, not the one that makes the better highlight.

Advantage up: close the door with percentage patterns

• Deuce court: T serve if the returner has been leaning wide, otherwise body through the backhand. Either way, start the first groundstroke to the returner’s weaker wing.
• Ad court: T serve that threatens the line judge. Your margin is one foot inside the tape, not the chalk. If you miss narrowly, miss in. You earn a central reply and finish with forehand to the open court.

Break points saved: steal time from the returner

• Mix two balls only: body into the backhand hip or T into the backhand corner. Avoid the wide serve that opens the court unless it has been automatic that day.
• Add a first-ball change up: drop shot only if you have already dragged the returner deep with body or T patterns. Otherwise, run a straightforward two-ball sequence: forehand to the big target, then forehand behind.

In New York, Sinner saw very few looks at break point, and Alcaraz tilted those moments toward body and T patterns to deny a full forehand cut. The match flow rewarded the boring choice.

Plus-one forehand court coverage

Serve accuracy is only half of the trick. The other half is how quickly you arrive to the ball and what you decide at contact.

Think of the court as three lanes from your perspective on the baseline: outside lane, center lane, inside lane. After serving from the deuce side wide, Alcaraz sprinted diagonally into the outside lane and set his base outside the singles sideline. That geometry lets the first forehand go back behind the returner with a heavy inside out shape. If the return floats, he closes into the court and takes it off the rise, using the same swing but moving contact in front of the body.

From the ad court T serve, he stayed in the center lane, split stepping on the center hash. This is the rectangle you can own if you want a choice. From there, he could drive the forehand deep cross to push Sinner into the alley, then finish down the line or with a short angle.

Two simple movement rules you can teach to juniors and club players:

• If you serve wide, recover diagonally toward the open space and set outside the sideline. Expect the first ball to be on your forehand.
• If you serve T or body, recover to the center hash and hold your ground. Expect the first ball to be central and waist high.

When you build this habit, your feet are doing the decision making before your brain can second guess.

Return-position tweaks that reinforced the hold

This was a serving clinic, but it was reinforced by what happened on the return games. Each clean return game removes pressure from your next service game. Two consistent Sinner busting choices showed up in Alcaraz’s posture on return:

• On first serves he often started a half step deeper and a half step wider, giving himself space to see the ball and swing up and across. That created high, heavy crosscourt replies that pushed Sinner off the baseline.
• On second serves he stepped in aggressively and shortened the takeback, blocking deep through the middle. That took time away and fed him the first forehand in neutral rallies.

Why this matters for your serve: if your opponent feels your return posture erase their free points, they press on their serve and give you shorter holds afterward. The serve plus one is a full game plan, not a single shot trick.

For pressure routines you can copy on deciding points, visit our one-point tennis playbook.

Between-point cues that keep the pattern under pressure

The physical pattern is simple. The problem is doing it at 4-4, 30-30. Alcaraz ran a clear between-point routine that any player can copy.

1. Turn away from the net and walk to the towel. Slow inhale through the nose for four seconds, long exhale through the mouth for six seconds.
2. Touch the strings and look at the string bed. Say the target in one word: “Wide” or “T.” Do not add a sentence. Single words cut noise.
3. Meet the baseline at the same spot before every serve, then do the same bounce count. Consistency in the pre-serve marks helps your body know what happens next.
4. After the serve, commit to the first step. If the first step is late, the entire plus one falls apart.

These cues reduce the choice load. The mind likes one word, one step, one swing.

Drill 1: Serve plus one target ladder

Goal: build score aware patterns that earn a forehand start.

Setup: server on deuce side with a basket of balls. One live returner if possible, or a coach with a hand toss. Cones mark three serve targets: wide, body, T. Cones also mark two plus one zones: deep cross to the outside tram, deep middle on the singles line.

Progression:

• Stage A, pattern learning: 20 balls from deuce side. Alternate wide serve to the cone, recover outside the sideline, and hit the plus one to the deep cross cone. Then 20 balls to the T, recover to center hash, plus one to deep middle cone.
• Stage B, score script: call the score before each point and hit the matching target. 0-0 and 15-0 use wide and body. 30-30 and deuce use wide on deuce, T on ad. Advantage up uses T or body depending on the returner’s lean. If you miss the first-serve target by more than a racquet length, replay the ball and repeat the target. The goal is location, not speed.
• Stage C, live pressure: add a returner who plays out the point. Server must say the target word out loud in the routine. Play to 11 points. Server earns 2 points for a first-serve target hit plus a forehand plus one, 1 point for a hold by any means, 0 points for a miss on both target and plus one.

Coaching notes: use a small clipboard or phone note to track targets hit. Do not let speed chase out accuracy. When in doubt, move the server’s toss an inch toward the target side rather than telling them to swing harder.

Drill 2: Pressure hold circuit with return posture

Goal: integrate the serve pattern with a return stance that reduces pressure on the following hold.

Setup: two players, one serves first game, then immediately returns the next game. Use two cones for return depth: one cone three feet behind the baseline for first-serve posture, one cone one foot inside the baseline for second-serve posture.

Progression:

• Game 1, hold challenge: server starts each point by calling “wide” or “T.” If the ball hits the target cone area, server gets a bonus ball in the rally that they can call to replay once per game. Play first to four points. If the server wins 4-0 or 4-1, they score 3 training points. If 4-2 or 4-3, they score 2. If they lose the game, 0.
• Game 2, return reset: swap roles. The new returner must stand behind the back cone on first serves and step to the front cone on second serves. Coach or partner calls out “first” or “second” as the ball toss goes up. The returner gets 1 training point every time they hit deep middle on a second serve return.
• Repeat the two-game sequence three times. Target is 12 training points total.

Coaching notes: after each two-game block, ask the players to say two observations only. One about serve location that produced a forehand, one about return depth that produced a neutral or better start. Keep the conversation trimmed. Execution beats discussion.

Quick string and tension sidebar for serve plus one

The goal of serve plus one is reliable location on the serve and a forehand that lands heavy but controllable. Your string and tension can help.

• If your serve is missing long more than wide: raise tension 2 pounds to shorten dwell time. Control increases, toss can stay the same.
• If your serve is missing wide more than long: lower tension 2 pounds to add pocketing and a little curve. The ball will catch the side of the box more easily.
• If your plus one forehand flies on hot days: string the mains 2 pounds tighter than the crosses. That firms the directional control while keeping some pocketing.
• If you need more bite for the heavy inside out ball: a shaped polyester like Babolat RPM Blast or Solinco Hyper G in the mains at 48 to 52 pounds adds spin without demanding a massive swing. If you want more comfort, hybrid the poly mains with a soft synthetic gut or multifilament cross like Wilson NXT at 51 to 55 pounds.

Testing plan:

1. Make one change at a time. Tension first, then pattern. Keep notes for three sessions.
2. Use a 10 serves per cone test. Track how many serves land in the cone area at wide, body, and T. If a change adds at least two extra hits out of 10, keep it for two weeks.
3. Rerun the same test on a cooler or windier day before making the next change.

Arm health matters. If your arm feels sore after a session, stop and rest. Strings are there to help your patterns, not to hurt your body.

The cheat sheet: a decision tree you can tape to your bag

• 0-0, 15-0, 30-15
  • Deuce: serve wide, expect forehand, plus one deep cross
  • Ad: serve body, expect central reply, plus one deep middle
• 30-30 and deuce
  • Deuce: serve wide with more pace, plus one inside out
  • Ad: serve T, plus one to the open court, then behind
• Advantage up
  • Deuce: T or body to take away the forehand return
  • Ad: T to the backhand corner, big forehand to space
• Break point down
  • Body or T only, then two-ball pattern: big target, then behind

Tape it in your bag. Call the target in one word between points. Use your first step to make the plan real.

Why this scales to your level

You do not need a tour serve to play serve plus one. You need the right target at the right score and the first step after contact. If you can place cones and hold yourself to a routine, you can get the same outcome pattern as the best players in the world: more forehands in space and shorter service games. That is the recipe for saving legs and winning big points late.

Off court work makes this easier. The fastest servers on your team are not always the hardest to break. The most organized are. For more on building this habit base, study our serve plus one blueprint.

Bring it to the court this week

• Run the serve plus one target ladder twice a week.
• Use the pressure hold circuit at the start of practice to set the bar for focus.
• Test one small string or tension change that supports your most used serve target.
• Film two service games and check whether your first step matches your called target.

Alcaraz’s masterclass in New York showed that the best hold is built before the ball leaves your hand. If you can aim with the scoreboard, recover with a plan, and reset your mind between points, you will feel the same click he found under the roof on Sunday. The final revealed the blueprint. Now run it until your service games feel inevitable.