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.

Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# DNQ A NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.

FRef

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
#PlayerW/LOpponentRoundEventSetsSurface Ref.
113 John IsnerW Nicolas Mahut1R2010 Wimbledon5Grass [12]
103 Nicolas MahutL John Isner
78 Ivo KarlovićL Radek ŠtěpánekSF2009 Davis Cup5Clay
75 Ivo KarlovićW Horacio Zeballos1R2017 Australian Open5Hard
67 Reilly OpelkaL Thomas Fabbiano2R2019 Australian Open5Hard
64 John IsnerW Ruben Bemelmans2R2018 Wimbledon5Grass
61 Ivo KarlovićW Lu Yen-Hsun1R2016 US Open5Hard
Ivo KarlovićL Jan-Lennard Struff2R2018 Wimbledon5Grass
59 Ivo KarlovićL Kei Nishikori2R2019 Australian Open5Hard
56 Albano OlivettiL Matthew Barton1R2016 Wimbledon5Grass [13]

Most aces in a US Open match
# PlayerW/LOpponentRound EventSurfaceRef.
61 Ivo KarlovićW Lu Yen-hsun1R 2016 US OpenHard[14]
52 John IsnerL Steve Johnson1R 2020 US Open
49 Kevin Anderson W Jiří Veselý1R 2021 US Open
Richard KrajicekL Yevgeny KafelnikovQF 1999 US Open
48 Alexander BublikW Thomas Fabbiano2R 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
#PlayerEventSurfaceRef.
156 Reilly Opelka2019 New York OpenHard[16]
144 John Isner2007 Legg Mason Tennis ClassicHard[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
#PlayerW/LOpponentRoundEventSurfaceRef.
10 Sam QuerreyW James BlakeQF2007 IndianapolisHard[20][21]
8 Radek ŠtěpánekW Christophe RochusF2006 RotterdamHard (i)[22]
7 Michael StichW Guy ForgetSF1993 Hopman CupHard[23]
Andy RoddickW Sjeng SchalkenQF2003 US OpenHard[24]
Andy RoddickL Lleyton HewittSF2005 Australian OpenHard[25]
Fernando GonzálezW Joachim Johansson3R2005 WimbledonGrass[26]
Feliciano LópezL Tomáš Berdych2R2013 ShanghaiHard[27]
Ivo KarlovićW Mikhail Youzhny1R2014 HalleGrass[28]
Roger FedererW James DuckworthQF2015 BrisbaneHard[29]
Sam QuerreyW Thomas FabbianoSF2019 EastbourneGrass[30]

Serving five consecutive aces from 0–40 down
PlayerW/LOpponentRoundEventSurfaceRef.
Boris BeckerW Andriy MedvedevF1995 Hopman CupHard[31]
John IsnerL Édouard Roger-VasselinSF2013 Delray BeachHard[32]
John IsnerW Jiří Veselý3R2015 US OpenHard[33]
Reilly OpelkaW Roberto Bautista AgutQF2019 BaselHard (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]
39 Reilly Opelka W John Isner SF 2022 Dallas Open Hard [36]
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 [37][38]

Seasons with 1000+ aces
#PlayerYears Ref.
7 John Isner2010, 2012, 2015–2019 [39][40]
4 Goran Ivanišević1994, 1996–1998 [41]
Ivo Karlović2007, 2014–2016 [41]
2 Milos Raonic2012, 2014 [41][42]
Kevin Anderson2015, 2018 [39][43]
1 Pete Sampras1993 [44]
Andy Roddick2004 [41]
Reilly Opelka2019 [45]

WTA Tour

Serena Williams holds the record for most aces in a tournament with 102 en route to winning the 2012 Wimbledon title.[46]

Karolína Plíšková has the most aces in a single season with 530 in 2016,[47] which broke her own record of 517 in 2015.[48] 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.[49]

Most aces in a match

There have been 29 matches played in which a player has served 20 or more aces, since 2008.[50]

#PlayerW/LOpponentRoundEventSetsSurface Ref.
31 Kristýna PlíškováL Monica Puig2R2016 Australian Open3Hard [50]
28 Kristýna PlíškováL Monica Puig2R2019 Luxembourg3Hard (i)
27 Sabine LisickiW Belinda Bencic2R2015 Birmingham2Grass
24 Kaia KanepiW Lucie Šafářová1R2008 Tokyo3Hard [51]
Serena WilliamsW Victoria AzarenkaSF2012 Wimbledon2Grass [50]
Kristýna PlíškováW Karolína Plíšková2R2019 Birmingham3Grass
Karolína PlíškováW Amanda Anisimova2R2021 US Open3Hard[52]
23 Serena WilliamsW Zheng Jie3R2012 Wimbledon3Grass[50]
Kristýna PlíškováL Océane Dodin1R2016 Linz3Hard (i)
22 Brenda SchultzW Iva MajoliQF1994 Birmingham3Grass [53]
Meghann ShaughnessyL Nicole VaidišováF2005 Memphis2Hard (i) [54]
Alicia MolikL Venus WilliamsQF2007 Tokyo2Hard [54]
Ekaterina AlexandrovaW Kristie AhnQF 2019 Seoul3Hard[50]
Alison Van UytvanckL Sofia KeninSF2020 Lyon3Hard

Seasons with 500+ aces
#PlayerYears Ref.
2 Karolina Pliskova2015–2016 [55][56]

See also

References
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