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 13,728.^[7] He also has the most in a best-of-three-set match with 45 at Halle in 2015.^[8] Two weeks later, during Wimbledon, he became the only player to hit at least 40 aces in three consecutive matches.^[9]

Goran Ivanišević has the most in a single season with 1,477 in 1996.^[10] 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.^[11] He is also third on the career list.^[6]

Most aces in a match[]

#	Player	W/L	Opponent	Round	Event	Sets	Surface	Ref.
113	John Isner	W	Nicolas Mahut	1R	2010 Wimbledon	5	Grass	[12]
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	[13]

Most aces in a US Open match[]

#	Player	W/L	Opponent	Round	Event	Surface	Ref.
61	Ivo Karlović	W	Lu Yen-hsun	1R	2016 US Open	Hard	[14]
52	John Isner	L	Steve Johnson	1R	2020 US Open
49	Kevin Anderson	W	Jiří Veselý	1R	2021 US Open
	Richard Krajicek	L	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	QF	1999 US Open
48	Alexander Bublik	W	Thomas Fabbiano	2R	2019 US Open

Most aces in a clay-court tournament[]

* Note: This marked the third time that Isner had hit 100+ aces in a clay-court tournament.

#	Player	Event	Surface	Ref.
124	Martin Verkerk	2003 French Open	Clay	[15]
110	John Isner	2014 French Open
108	Michael Stich	1996 French Open
10	John Isner	2021 Madrid Open
101	John Isner	2017 Rome

Most aces in a one-week tournament[]

#	Player	Event	Surface	Ref.
156	Reilly Opelka	2019 New York Open	Hard	[16]
144	John Isner	2007 Legg Mason Tennis Classic	Hard	[4]

Most combined aces in a three-set match[]

#	Player	W/L	Opponent	Round	Event	Surface	Ref.
81	Reilly Opelka	W	John Isner	SF	2019 New York	Hard	[17][18]
71	Nick Kyrgios	W	Ryan Harrison	1R	2019 Brisbane	Hard	[19]

Most consecutive aces[]

#	Player	W/L	Opponent	Round	Event	Surface	Ref.
10	Sam Querrey	W	James Blake	QF	2007 Indianapolis	Hard	[20][21]
8	Radek Štěpánek	W	Christophe Rochus	F	2006 Rotterdam	Hard (i)	[22]
7	Michael Stich	W	Guy Forget	SF	1993 Hopman Cup	Hard	[23]
	Andy Roddick	W	Sjeng Schalken	QF	2003 US Open	Hard	[24]
	Andy Roddick	L	Lleyton Hewitt	SF	2005 Australian Open	Hard	[25]
	Fernando González	W	Joachim Johansson	3R	2005 Wimbledon	Grass	[26]
	Feliciano López	L	Tomáš Berdych	2R	2013 Shanghai	Hard	[27]
	Ivo Karlović	W	Mikhail Youzhny	1R	2014 Halle	Grass	[28]
	Roger Federer	W	James Duckworth	QF	2015 Brisbane	Hard	[29]
	Sam Querrey	W	Thomas Fabbiano	SF	2019 Eastbourne	Grass	[30]

Serving five consecutive aces from 0–40 down[]

Player	W/L	Opponent	Round	Event	Surface	Ref.
Boris Becker	W	Andriy Medvedev	F	1995 Hopman Cup	Hard	[31]
John Isner	L	Édouard Roger-Vasselin	SF	2013 Delray Beach	Hard	[32]
John Isner	W	Jiří Veselý	3R	2015 US Open	Hard	[33]
Reilly Opelka	W	Roberto Bautista Agut	QF	2019 Basel	Hard (i)	[34]

Most aces without a double fault[]

#	Player	W/L	Opponent	Round	Event	Surface	Ref.
49	John Isner	W	Bernard Tomic	1R	2016 Davis Cup	Grass	[35]
37	John Isner	W	Jerzy Janowicz	1R	2016 Australian Open	Hard	[12]
34	Ivo Karlović	W	Nicolás Massú	1R	2007 Stockholm
33	Andy Roddick	W	Fernando González	4R	2010 Australian Open
31	Marat Safin	W	Andre Agassi	SF	2004 Australian Open		[36][37]

Seasons with 1000+ aces[]

#	Player	Years	Ref.
7	John Isner	2010, 2012, 2015–2019	[38][39]
4	Goran Ivanišević	1994, 1996–1998	[40]
	Ivo Karlović	2007, 2014–2016	[40]
2	Milos Raonic	2012, 2014	[40][41]
	Kevin Anderson	2015, 2018	[38][42]
1	Pete Sampras	1993	[43]
	Andy Roddick	2004	[40]
	Reilly Opelka	2019	[44]

WTA Tour[]

Serena Williams holds the record for most aces in a tournament with 102 en route to winning the 2012 Wimbledon title.^[45]

Karolína Plíšková has the most aces in a single season with 530 in 2016,^[46] which broke her own record of 517 in 2015.^[47] She has also served the most aces in a match on clay, with 21 in her second round victory over Jeļena Ostapenko at Stuttgart in 2021.^[48]

Most aces in a match[]

There have been 29 matches played in which a player has served 20 or more aces, since 2008.^[49]

#	Player	W/L	Opponent	Round	Event	Sets	Surface	Ref.
31	Kristýna Plíšková	L	Monica Puig	2R	2016 Australian Open	3	Hard	[49]
28	Kristýna Plíšková	L	Monica Puig	2R	2019 Luxembourg	3	Hard (i)
27	Sabine Lisicki	W	Belinda Bencic	2R	2015 Birmingham	2	Grass
24	Kaia Kanepi	W	Lucie Šafářová	1R	2008 Tokyo	3	Hard	[50]
	Serena Williams	W	Victoria Azarenka	SF	2012 Wimbledon	2	Grass	[49]
	Kristýna Plíšková	W	Karolína Plíšková	2R	2019 Birmingham	3	Grass
	Karolína Plíšková	W	Amanda Anisimova	2R	2021 US Open	3	Hard	[51]
23	Serena Williams	W	Zheng Jie	3R	2012 Wimbledon	3	Grass	[49]
	Kristýna Plíšková	L	Océane Dodin	1R	2016 Linz	3	Hard (i)
22	Brenda Schultz	W	Iva Majoli	QF	1994 Birmingham	3	Grass	[52]
	Meghann Shaughnessy	L	Nicole Vaidišová	F	2005 Memphis	2	Hard (i)	[53]
	Alicia Molik	L	Venus Williams	QF	2007 Tokyo	2	Hard	[53]
	Ekaterina Alexandrova	W	Kristie Ahn	QF	2019 Seoul	3	Hard	[49]
	Alison van Uytvanck	L	Sofia Kenin	SF	2020 Lyon	3	Hard

Seasons with 500+ aces[]

#	Player	Years	Ref.
2	Karolina Pliskova	2015–2016	[54][55]

See also[]

• ATP Tour records
• Fastest recorded tennis serves

References[]