Alycia Parks has a serve ‘like peak Serena Williams’ and can win a Grand Slam title says Rennae Stubbs

Rennae Stubbs has compared Alycia Parks’ booming serve to peak Serena Williams and believes “without question” she can be a Grand Slam champion.

The 22-year-old showed in Lyon that she has one of the biggest serves on the WTA Tour right now.

She fired down 52 aces across her five matches, which is a higher average this season than Australian Open finalists Elena Rybakina (82 aces in 10 matches) and Aryna Sabalenka (81 aces in 11 matches).

Former doubles world No. 1 Stubbs has backed Parks to become a top-10 player in the next 12 months.

“I’m telling you, she’s a potential top-10 player within the next 12 months. She’s got to keep, obviously, the body healthy. She’s a strong girl, really wants it, she has a great head on her shoulders.

“I think she’s a great talent and there’s a great upside for her. She has every power tool in the world, and without question can be a Grand Slam champion one day if she keeps putting the work in. She is good, really good.”

Parks, who in 2021 equalled Venus Williams for the fastest serve in US Open history at 129mph, is up to No. 51 in the world after her Lyon Open victory and will be hoping to climb further in the coming months.

She will also be aiming to make her mark at a Grand Slam for the first time having made her main-draw debut at the US Open in 2021, but so far she has failed to qualify for the last five majors.

Stubbs saw Parks in action ahead of last year’s US Open when she was working with Williams – and was hugely impressed.

“I knew a bit about her and her big game,” she explained.

“Last year at the US Open, I really wanted Serena to play practice sets against as many people as possible, something she had never done in the past, but I felt with very little match play over the last year, she needed to play practice sets. It’s the closest thing to simulating a match.

“She played Ons Jabeur, Maria Sakkari, Sofia Kenin, all well-known players.

“The next day, Serena was having a bad day and she was getting spanked by Alycia. She was acing like 120mph T serves, out wide. I was like ‘what the f***?’.

“First of all, I was thinking, why would you get this girl to practice with Serena? She loves Serena, clearly her idol, but she was going out and having the best time, serving her off the court, and Serena – it’s not building up her confidence. It was the worst practice we had before the US Open.

“She was so good, she was literally pounding the ball. I was like, ‘how does this girl lose?’”

That Parks’ serve has developed into such a weapon might not be surprising given she has previously worked with American coach Rick Macci.

Macci spent time coaching both Williams sisters as well as Andy Roddick, Maria Sharapova and Jennifer Capriati.

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