Ace (tennis)

In tennis, an ace is a legal serve that is not touched by the receiver, winning the point.

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 (usually in the far corners of the service box).

The most common placement of an ace is a hard flat serve to either the middle or the corner of the service box, or a spin serve out wide such as a slice serve to the deuce court for right-handed servers, or a kick serve, also known as a topspin serve, to the ad court for right-handed servers.

Records

Men

John Isner holds the record for most aces in a professional tennis match

On June 23, 2010 in the 2010 Wimbledon first round, John Isner hit 113 aces in a match against Nicolas Mahut, who himself hit 103 aces, by virtue of it being the longest match of tennis ever played in terms of both time taken (11 hours 5 minutes) and number of games.

Ivo Karlović holds the third position, as he hit 78 aces in a Davis Cup match on 18 September 2009.

The record for most aces in a tournament is held by Goran Ivanišević who hit 212 aces en route to winning Wimbledon in 2001. Goran Ivanišević holds the record for most aces served in a year with 1477 in the 1996 season. He also holds the record for most career aces with 10183.^{[citation needed]}

The record for the fastest ace is jointly held by Andy Roddick and Milos Raonic, who both served aces measured at 155 mph. Roddick's came in a 2004 Davis Cup match against Belarus, and Raonic's came against Tobias Kamke in the 2012 SAP Open in San Jose. Ivo Karlović served a 156 mph (~251 km/h)serve against Germany during the 2011 Davis Cup, however this was not an ace as the returner contacted the ball with his racket.

At the 2007 Indianapolis Tennis Championships, Sam Querrey hit 10 consecutive aces when he defeated James Blake in a quarterfinal. This is believed to be an Open Era record.

In the 2009 Wimbledon final Roger Federer hit 50 aces in a 5–7, 7–6 (6), 7–6 (5), 3–6, 16–14 win over Andy Roddick, the record for aces hit in a major final.

#	Aces	Player	W/L	Opponent	Rnd	Year	Event	Sets
1.	113	John Isner	W	Nicolas Mahut	1R	2010	Wimbledon	5
2.	103	Nicolas Mahut	L	John Isner	1R	2010	Wimbledon	5
3.	78	Ivo Karlović	L	Radek Štěpánek	SF	2009	Davis Cup	5
4.	55 [3]	Ivo Karlović	L	Lleyton Hewitt	1R	2009	Roland Garros	5
5.	51 [4]	Ivo Karlović	L	Daniele Bracciali	1R	2005	Wimbledon	5
5.	51	Joachim Johansson	L	Andre Agassi	4R	2005	Australian Open	4
7.	50	Roger Federer	W	Andy Roddick	F	2009	Wimbledon	5
7.	50	Chris Guccione	W	Olivier Patience	q1	2005	Wimbledon	3
9.	49	Richard Krajicek	L	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	QF	1999	US Open	5
10.	48	Ivo Karlović	L	Ivan Dodig	1R	2010	Australian Open	5
11.	47	Ivo Karlović	W	James Blake	QF	2009	Davis Cup	5

Women

In Woman's tennis, Venus Williams holds the record for the fastest ace by a woman at 130 mph in the 2008 Zurich tournament.

Serena Williams holds the record for most number of aces in a tournament by a woman (89 aces at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships).

See also

• Fastest recorded tennis serves