Ace (tennis)

In tennis, an ace is a legal serve that is not touched by the receiver, winning the point.[1] In professional tennis, aces are generally seen on a player's first serve, where the server can strike the ball with maximum force and take more chances with ball placement, such as the far corners of the service box.[2] According to the International Tennis Hall of Fame, this term was coined by the sports journalist Allison Danzig.[3]

Professional singles records

Aces have been officially recorded by the top-level professional tennis circuits since 1991,[4] so these records start at that time.

Only main draw singles matches are included here.

ATP Tour

John Isner holds the professional records for most aces in a match and an entire tournament.

John Isner has the most aces in a tournament with 214 during the 2018 Wimbledon,[5] and he has the most in a single match with 113 during his 11 hour encounter with Nicolas Mahut in 2010. He is also second on the most aces in career list.[6]

Ivo Karlović has the most career aces with 13,582.[6] He also has the most in a best-of-three-set match with 45 at Halle in 2015.[7] Two weeks later, during Wimbledon, he became the only player to hit at least 40 aces in three consecutive matches.[8]

Goran Ivanišević has the most in a single season with 1,477 in 1996.[9] He also has the second most in a tournament with 213 when he won the 2001 Wimbledon title.[5]

Roger Federer hit 50 aces in the 2009 Wimbledon final, the record for a Grand Slam final.[10] He is also third on the career list.[6]

Most aces in a match

#	Player	W/L	Opponent	Round	Event	Sets	Surface
113	John Isner	W	Nicolas Mahut	1R	2010 Wimbledon	5	Grass
103	Nicolas Mahut	L	John Isner
78	Ivo Karlović	L	Radek Štěpánek	SF	2009 Davis Cup	5	Clay
75	Ivo Karlović	W	Horacio Zeballos	1R	2017 Australian Open	5	Hard
67	Reilly Opelka	L	Thomas Fabbiano	2R	2019 Australian Open	5	Hard
64	John Isner	W	Ruben Bemelmans	2R	2018 Wimbledon	5	Grass
61	Ivo Karlović	W	Lu Yen-Hsun	1R	2016 US Open	5	Hard
	Ivo Karlović	L	Jan-Lennard Struff	2R	2018 Wimbledon	5	Grass
59	Ivo Karlović	L	Kei Nishikori	2R	2019 Australian Open	5	Hard
56	Albano Olivetti	L	Matthew Barton	1R	2016 Wimbledon	5	Grass

Seasons with 1000+ aces

#	Player	Years
7	John Isner	2010, 2012, 2015–2019
4	Goran Ivanišević	1994, 1996–1998
	Ivo Karlović	2007, 2014–2016
2	Milos Raonic	2012, 2014
	Kevin Anderson	2015, 2018
1	Pete Sampras	1993
	Andy Roddick	2004
	Reilly Opelka	2019

Other

• Most in a one-week tournament: 156 – Reilly Opelka at the 2019 New York Open[11], 144 – John Isner at the 2007 Legg Mason Tennis Classic[4]
• Most consecutive: 10 – Sam Querrey against James Blake at 2007 Indianapolis[12][13]
• Serving 5 consecutive aces from 0–40 down: Boris Becker against Andriy Medvedev at the 1995 Hopman Cup,[14] John Isner against Jiri Vesely at the 2015 US Open,[15] Reilly Opelka against Roberto Bautista Agut at the 2019 Swiss Indoors[16]

WTA Tour

Serena Williams holds the record for most aces in a tournament with 102 en route to winning the 2012 Wimbledon title.[17]

Karolína Plíšková has the most aces in a single season with 530 in 2016,[18] which broke her own record of 517 in 2015.[19]

Most aces in a match

#	Player	W/L	Opponent	Round	Event	Sets	Surface
31	Kristýna Plíšková	L	Monica Puig	2R	2016 Australian Open	3	Hard
28	Kristýna Plíšková	L	Monica Puig	2R	2019 Luxembourg	3	Hard
27	Sabine Lisicki	W	Belinda Bencic	2R	2015 Birmingham	2	Grass
24	Kaia Kanepi	W	Lucie Šafářová	1R	2008 Tokyo	3
	Serena Williams	W	Victoria Azarenka	SF	2012 Wimbledon	2	Grass
	Kristýna Plíšková	W	Karolína Plíšková	2R	2019 Birmingham	3	Grass
23	Serena Williams	W	Zheng Jie	3R	2012 Wimbledon	3	Grass
	Kristýna Plíšková	L	Océane Dodin	1R	2016 Linz	3	Hard
22	Brenda Schultz	W	Iva Majoli	QF	1994 Birmingham	3
	Meghann Shaughnessy	W	Nicole Vaidišová	F	2005 Memphis	2
	Alicia Molik	L	Venus Williams	QF	2007 Tokyo	2
	Alison van Uytvanck	L	Sofia Kenin	SF	2020 Lyon	3	Hard

See also

• Fastest recorded tennis serves

References

1. ace - Definition from Dictionary.com.
2. TENNIS.com - Tip of the Week - December 19, 2005 - Your Second Serve Archived September 28, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
3. "Allison Danzig". International Tennis Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2016-12-02.
4. "ASAP Sports Transcripts - Tennis - 2007 - PRESS CONFERENCES - ATP TENNIS MEDIA CONFERENCE - August 8". www.asapsports.com.
5. "Five takeaways from Anderson's marathon win over Isner at Wimbledon". tennis.com. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
6. "Aces - ATP Tour - Tennis".
7. "Karlovic beats Berdych with record 45 aces in Halle; Federer reaches semis".
8. "Ivo Karlovic Strikes 41 Aces To Advance At Wimbledon".
9. "Goran Ivanisevic - Player Stats - ATP Tour - Tennis".
10. "Federer outlasts Roddick for record 15th Slam". ESPN.com. 5 July 2009.
11. "Reilly Opelka Wins New York Open Title | ATP Tour | Tennis". ATP Tour. Retrieved 2019-10-27.
12. 2011, 6:05PM BST 16 Jun (16 June 2011). "Tennis record breaker Sam Querry shows how to serve quicker and smarter".CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
13. "The New York Sun". Querrey Gives a Sample Of What May Be in Store. Retrieved July 31, 2007.
14. "T365 Recall: When Boris Becker served five aces in a row at 0-40 down". Tennis365.com. 2018-07-27. Retrieved 2019-10-27.
15. "Isner unbroken, Vesely retires, Federer awaits - Official Site of the 2019 US Open Tennis Championships - A USTA Event". 2015 US Open. 2015-09-05. Retrieved 2019-10-27.
16. "ATP Basel: Reilly Opelka's 31 Aces Dent Roberto Bautista Agut's London Hopes | ATP Tour | Tennis". ATP Tour. Retrieved 2019-10-27.
17. "Serena taken to 3 sets, wins 5th Wimbledon".
18. admin (18 November 2016). "Top 10 WTA Aces Leaders In 2016".
19. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-01-24. Retrieved 2017-01-27.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)