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 13,653.[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
#PlayerW/LOpponentRoundEventSetsSurface
113 John IsnerW Nicolas Mahut1R2010 Wimbledon5Grass
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

Most aces in a one-week tournament
#PlayerEventSurfaceRef.
156 Reilly Opelka2019 New York OpenHard[11]
144 John Isner2007 Legg Mason Tennis ClassicHard[4]

Most consecutive aces
#PlayerW/LOpponentRoundEventSurfaceRef.
10 Sam QuerreyW James BlakeQF2007 IndianapolisHard[12][13]
8 Radek ŠtěpánekW Christophe RochusF2006 RotterdamHard (i)[14]
7 Michael StichW Guy ForgetSF1993 Hopman CupHard[15]
Andy RoddickW Sjeng SchalkenQF2003 US OpenHard[16]
Andy RoddickL Lleyton HewittSF2005 Australian OpenHard[17]
Fernando GonzálezW Joachim Johansson3R2005 WimbledonGrass[18]
Feliciano LópezL Tomáš Berdych2R2013 ShanghaiHard[19]
Ivo KarlovićW Mikhail Youzhny1R2014 HalleGrass[20]
Roger FedererW James DuckworthQF2015 BrisbaneHard[21]
Sam QuerreyW Thomas FabbianoSF2019 EastbourneGrass[22]

Serving five consecutive aces from 0–40 down
PlayerW/LOpponentRoundEventSurfaceRef.
Boris BeckerW Andriy MedvedevF1995 Hopman CupHard[23]
John IsnerL Édouard Roger-VasselinSF2013 Delray BeachHard[24]
John IsnerW Jiří Veselý3R2015 US OpenHard[25]
Reilly OpelkaW Roberto Bautista AgutQF2019 BaselHard[26]

Seasons with 1000+ aces
#PlayerYears
7 John Isner2010, 2012, 2015–2019
4 Goran Ivanišević1994, 1996–1998
Ivo Karlović2007, 2014–2016
2 Milos Raonic2012, 2014
Kevin Anderson2015, 2018
1 Pete Sampras1993
Andy Roddick2004
Reilly Opelka2019

WTA Tour

Serena Williams holds the record for most aces in a tournament with 102 en route to winning the 2012 Wimbledon title.[27]

Karolína Plíšková has the most aces in a single season with 530 in 2016,[28] which broke her own record of 517 in 2015.[29]

Most aces in a match
#PlayerW/LOpponentRoundEventSetsSurface
31 Kristýna PlíškováL Monica Puig2R2016 Australian Open3Hard
28 Kristýna PlíškováL Monica Puig2R2019 Luxembourg3Hard
27 Sabine LisickiW Belinda Bencic2R2015 Birmingham2Grass
24 Kaia KanepiW Lucie Šafářová1R2008 Tokyo3Hard
Serena WilliamsW Victoria AzarenkaSF2012 Wimbledon2Grass
Kristýna PlíškováW Karolína Plíšková2R2019 Birmingham3Grass
23 Serena WilliamsW Zheng Jie3R2012 Wimbledon3Grass
Kristýna PlíškováL Océane Dodin1R2016 Linz3Hard
22 Brenda SchultzW Iva MajoliQF1994 Birmingham3Grass
Meghann ShaughnessyL Nicole VaidišováF2005 Memphis2Hard
Alicia MolikL Venus WilliamsQF2007 Tokyo2Hard
Alison van UytvanckL Sofia KeninSF2020 Lyon3Hard

See also

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. "Stepanek powers to first ATP title". 26 February 2006.
  15. "Tennis: Germany cruise into final". 8 January 1993.
  16. "Roddick-Hewitt, the morning after". 29 January 2005.
  17. "Agassi, Roddick move into US Open semis". 5 September 2003.
  18. "El servicio de González opacó a Johansson en Wimbledon" (in Spanish). 24 June 2005.
  19. Max Gao [@MaxJGao] (9 October 2013). "WOW! RT @josemorgado: Feliciano Lopez just hit 7 consecutive aces. HELP" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  20. Tomislav Poljak [@TomislavPoljak] (10 June 2014). "7 aces in a row for Karlovic, 4 in the fourth game. 63 31 Ivo to the good" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  21. "Federer Demolishes Duckworth in Brisbane Quarter Final". 9 January 2015.
  22. "Live – Fabbiano–Querrey, semifinale Atp Eastbourne 2019 (diretta)" (in Italian). 28 June 2019.
  23. "T365 Recall: When Boris Becker served five aces in a row at 0-40 down". Tennis365.com. 2018-07-27. Retrieved 2019-10-27.
  24. "Roger-Vasselin Upsets Top Seed Isner — Fox Sports". Fox Sports. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  25. "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.
  26. "ATP Basel: Reilly Opelka's 31 Aces Dent Roberto Bautista Agut's London Hopes | ATP Tour | Tennis". ATP Tour. Retrieved 2019-10-27.
  27. "Serena taken to 3 sets, wins 5th Wimbledon".
  28. admin (18 November 2016). "Top 10 WTA Aces Leaders In 2016".
  29. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-01-24. Retrieved 2017-01-27.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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