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 the 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 10,183.^{[citation needed]}

The record for the fastest ace is held by Samuel Groth in 2012 in an ATP Challenger in Busan, he hit the fastest serve on record at 163.4 mph (263 kph). 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.

Most aces in a singles match:

#	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	Ivo Karlović	L	Lleyton Hewitt	1R	2009	Roland Garros	5
5	54	Gary Muller	W	Peter Lundgren	q	1993	Wimbledon	3
6T	51	Ivo Karlović	L	Daniele Bracciali	1R	2005	Wimbledon	5
6T	51	Joachim Johansson	L	Andre Agassi	4R	2005	Australian Open	4
8T	50	Roger Federer	W	Andy Roddick	F	2009	Wimbledon	5
8T	50	Chris Guccione	W	Olivier Patience	q1	2005	Wimbledon	3
8T	50	Grégory Carraz	W	Tomáš Zíb	R32	2004	Andrézieux challenger	3
11	49	Richard Krajicek	L	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	QF	1999	US Open	5
12T	48	Marc Rosset	L	Arnaud Clément	QF	2001	Davis Cup	5
12T	48	Ivo Karlović	L	Ivan Dodig	1R	2011	Australian Open	5
12T	48	Nicolás Almagro	W	Olivier Rochus	1R	2012	Wimbledon	5

Women

Serena Williams holds the record for most aces in a singles match (24), as well as most aces in a tournament (102), both occurring at the 2012 Wimbledon Championships.

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

Most aces in a singles match:

#	Aces	Player	W/L	Opponent	Rnd	Year	Event	Sets	Result
1	24	Serena Williams	W	Victoria Azarenka	SF	2012	Wimbledon	2	6–3, 7–6(6)
2	24	Kaia Kanepi	W	Lucie Safarova	1R	2008	Tokyo	3	4–6, 6–3, 6–4
3	23	Serena Williams (2)	W	Zheng Jie	3R	2012	Wimbledon	3	6–7(5), 6–2, 9–7
4T	22	Alicia Molik	L	Venus Williams	QF	2007	Tokyo	2	6–7(4), 3–6
4T	22	Brenda Schultz	W	Iva Majoli	QF	1994	Birmingham	3	6–4, 5–7, 6–0
4T	22	Meghann Shaughnessy	W	Nicole Vaidišová	F	2005	Memphis	2	7–6, 7–6
7	21	Ekaterina Bychkova	W	Lindsay Lee-Waters	q1	2011	French Open	3	3–6, 7–6(1), 10–8
8T	20	Serena Williams (3)	W	Elena Dementieva	SF	2009	Wimbledon	3	6–7(4), 7–5, 8–6
8T	20	Serena Williams (4)	W	Samantha Stosur	4R	2012	Miami	2	7–5, 6–3
8T	20	Venus Williams	L	Lindsay Davenport	F	1998	Stanford	3	4–6, 7–5, 4–6
8T	20	Kristina Mladenovic	W	Michaëlla Krajicek	q1	2012	Brisbane	3	7–5, 6–7(8), 6–2
8T	20	Naomi Broady	W	Caroline Garcia	1R	2011	Birmingham	3	6–2, 6–7(5), 6–4
8T	20	Nicole Vaidišová	W	Jelena Jankovic	QF	2006	Linz	3	5–7, 7–6(5), 6–4
8T	20	Julia Görges	W	Agnieszka Radwańska	1R	2012	London (2012 Olympics)	3	7–5, 6–7(5), 6–4

See also

• Fastest recorded tennis serves