Fastest recorded tennis serves explained
This article lists the fastest record serve speeds for men's and women's professional tennis.
Max reported speeds that are severe outliers are dubious due to the occasional errors with ATP radar equipment.[1] Some notable outliers are the recorded speeds of John Isner at 47181NaN1,[2] João Sousa at 20771NaN1,[3] Denis Shapovalov at 4241NaN1,[4] Laslo Djere at 3051NaN1,[5] Alejandro Davidovich Fokina at 2521NaN1,[6] Ryan Harrison at 690001NaN1,[7] Gaël Monfils at 2420NaN0,[8] and Rafael Nadal at 2301NaN1.[9]
The fastest recorded serve is by Sam Groth, at 163 mph (263 km/h) at a Challenger event. His second fastest record speed, and his fastest at an ATP event, was 147 mph at Wimbledon.[10] [11] Similarly, John Isner once hit a serve recorded at 253.0 km/h (157 mph) in the first round of the 2016 Davis Cup. One of the next fastest recorded speeds for Isner is 144 mph and the fastest serve in most of his matches is between 137 and 142 mph.[12] The fastest recorded speed that is not an outlier is 149 mph by Ben Shelton. At 20 years old, the American Ben Shelton served at 149 mph twice in the same game during the 1/8 finals of the 2023 US Open.[13] Shelton has reached speeds of 147 mph to 149 mph on multiple occasions.[14]
This list is not historically complete. For instance, not listed here, Roscoe Tanner's serve was clocked at 153 mph at Palm Springs in 1978 during the final against Raúl Ramírez. There are also reports that Bill Tilden had a serve that was clocked at 163.3 mph but there is nothing to verify that.[15] Also, Ellsworth Vines in the Wimbledon finals of 1932 clocked 121 mph (without Radar).[16] Udayachand Shetty's winning serve was clocked by radar at 120 mph using a wooden racquet, at the Gilbey Gins fast serve contest held in Chicago on 24 July 1976.[17] This qualified him to take part in the finals at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills Queens on 20 August 1976.Colin Dibley of Australia won the event with a serve of 130 mph.[18]
Milos Raonic with a 2351NaN1 second serve in the second round of the 2017 Australian Open in Melbourne and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard with a 235 km/h (146.0 mph) second serve in the first round of the 2024 BOSS Open in Stuttgart, holds the record for the fastest second serve ever recorded.[19] [20]
- Criteria to be listed in this article
- Men's serves must be recorded at or over 2301NaN1 minimum standard speed.
- Women's serves must be recorded at or over 2001NaN1 minimum standard speed.[21]
- Only one serve per player is recorded here. For example, Andy Roddick has several 140mph or faster serves on his record but only his personal best of 155abbr=onNaNabbr=on is included.[22]
- In cases where more than one serve has been recorded at the same speed, the oldest recorded serve is listed first.
Men
Women
The WTA doesn't keep official serve speed rankings of its own for all its events for a variety of reasons—mainly that serve speed isn't captured on every court at every tournament, and sometimes the technology being used isn't consistent from event to event. The Women's Tennis Association does have an external partner that it officially recognizes which measures and maintains serve speed data at selected number of events. It does not recognize at all, nor keep tabs of speed records set outside the main draw phase of WTA Tour tournaments. Therefore, serve speeds recorded from the qualifying phase of WTA tournaments are not added to the official WTA serve speed statistics. Also WTA tournament serve speeds recorded by different measurement systems or brands (at the discretion of the host or organizer) that are not using technology provided by ATP/WTA's official supplier or partner (currently SMT/IDS), or speeds recorded at any of the non-WTA professional women's tournaments such as the ITF Women's Circuit, the Fed Cup, and Olympics tennis are not added to WTA's official list of records.
See also
Notes and References
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- News: Rafael Nadal VS. John Isner Rome 2022. Association of Tennis Professionals. 11 May 2022. 16 June 2022. 16 June 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220616015236/https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/stats-centre/archive/2022/416/MS020. live.
- News: Laslo Djere VS. Joao Sousa Winston-Salem 2022. Association of Tennis Professionals. 23 Aug 2022. 8 September 2022. 8 September 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220908030142/https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/stats-centre/archive/2022/6242/MS021. live.
- News: Lorenzo Sonego VS. Denis Shapovalov Rome 2022. Association of Tennis Professionals. 9 May 2022. 8 September 2022. 8 September 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220908030133/https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/stats-centre/archive/2022/416/MS043. live.
- News: Jason Kubler VS. Laslo Djere Winston-Salem 2022. Association of Tennis Professionals. 22 Aug 2022. 8 September 2022. 8 September 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220908030141/https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/stats-centre/archive/2022/6242/MS010. live.
- News: Alejandro Davidovich Fokina VS. Félix Auger-Aliassime Rome 2022. 10 May 2022. ATP. 15 June 2022. 15 June 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220615200749/https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/stats-centre/archive/2022/416/MS019. live.
- Web site: Ryan Harrison's 152mph serve @ cincy 2013. Tennis Warehouse. 14 Aug 2023. 22 January 2023. 22 January 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230122062054/https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php?threads/ryan-harrisons-152mph-serve-cincy-2013.473486/. live.
- News: Wimbledon 2018: How a faulty speed gun robbed Gael Monfils of a slice of tournament history . 17 July 2022 . The Independent . 3 July 2018 . 17 July 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220717101724/https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/tennis/wimbledon/wimbledon-2018-tennis-live-watch-video-gael-monfils-history-record-serve-speed-gun-technology-a8428556.html . live .
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- Web site: Tennis Abstract: John Isner Match Results, Splits, and Analysis . 2024-04-19 . www.tennisabstract.com.
- Web site: Armed & Dangerous: Why Ben Shelton's Serve Is Already Among World's Best ATP Tour Tennis . 2024-04-19 . ATP Tour . en.
- Web site: Shelton Fires 147 mph Missile En Route To R4, Stricker Advances ATP Tour Tennis . 2024-04-19 . ATP Tour . en.
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- News: They only serve but Hard. Smith. Red. 26 August 1977. New York Times. 37.
- News: Aussie has a racket- hits "em 148 miles per hour. Chicago Tribune. 1976. 19 August 1976. 7.
- News: Dibley service fastest in town. Rogers. Thomas. 21 August 1976. New York Times.
- Web site: Tebbutt . Tom . 2017-01-17 . Tebbutt: Milos delivers . 2024-07-05 . Tennis Canada . en-US.
- The fastest second serve ever in Tennis - G.M. Perricard . 2024-06-12 . Jackt44 . 2024-07-05 . YouTube.
- News: IDS Serve Speed Leaders. Pro Tennis Internet Network. 30 June 2011. 30 January 2013. 1 January 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160101172433/http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/1978722/title/ids-serve-speed-leaders. live.
- Web site: Andy Roddick's Serve. 5 June 2012. 6 January 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160106004339/http://tennis.about.com/od/playersmale/ss/roddickserve.htm. dead.
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- Web site: Aussie smashes tennis serve speed record. 13 May 2012. The Sydney Morning Herald. 13 May 2012. 17 November 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151117205350/http://www.smh.com.au/sport/tennis/aussie-smashes-tennis-serve-speed-record-20120513-1ykfk.html. live.
- News: Groth and Olivetti Top Guns of Fast Serve. 11 August 2012. Orange Deuce. 28 July 2013. 22 October 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131022152924/http://orangedeuce.com/groth-and-olivetti-top-guns-of-fast-serve/. live.
- News: Davis Cup 2016: John Isner breaks serve speed record with 253km/h bomb. 6 March 2016. Fox Sports. 19 December 2017. 24 June 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170624043657/http://www.foxsports.com.au/tennis/davis-cup-2016-usas-john-isner-breaks-serve-speed-record-with-253kmh-bomb/news-story/36019d7f91f8276845e70616861ee8a2. live.
- News: Ivo Karlovic sets world serve record. 6 March 2011. ESPN. 8 March 2011. 19 January 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160119133746/http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=6186905&source=TENNISHeadlines. live.
- Web site: The record service speed of 251km/hour in the Challenger in Szczecin. 1 August 2013. Official Website of Jordan Tratree. 30 December 2013. 12 June 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180612140039/http://www.jerzy-janowicz.com/en/news/news-2012/110-challenger-w-szczecinie-rekordowy-serwis-251kmgodz-. live.
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- Web site: Roddick Smacks Voltchkov With a Record 155mph Serve. 24 September 2004. Tennis X. 2022-06-24. 2023-04-12. https://web.archive.org/web/20230412155501/https://www.tennis-x.com/story/2004-09-24/q.php. live.
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- Web site: IDS Serve Speed Leaders . WTA . 13 March 2014 . 1 January 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160101172433/http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/1978722/title/ids-serve-speed-leaders . live .
- "IDS (Information and Display Systems) only collects serve speed data on show courts at certain events (11 in 2014) and started doing so in 1989 ... Players who have had multiple Top 10 fastest serves only have their top one listed, and if they hit that top speed multiple times, just the first time they did it is listed." http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/1978722/title/ids-serve-speed-leaders
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