Tennis Ace

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. According to the International Tennis Hall of Fame, this term was coined by the sports journalist Allison Danzig.

Aces have been officially recorded by the top-level professional tennis circuits since 1991, so these records start at that time.

Only main draw singles matches are included here.

ATP Tour

 

John Isner has the most aces in a tournament with 214 during the 2018 Wimbledon, and he has the most in a single match with 113 during his 11-hour encounter with Nicolas Mahut in 2010. John Isner has served the most aces with 14,470.

Ivo Karlović has the most in a best-of-three-set match with 45 at Halle in 2015. Two weeks later, during Wimbledon, he became the only player to hit at least 40 aces in three consecutive matches.

Goran Ivanišević has the most in a single season with 1,477 in 1996. He also has the second most in a tournament with 213 when he won the 2001 Wimbledon title.

Roger Federer hit 50 aces in the 2009 Wimbledon final, the record for a Grand Slam final. He is also third on the career list.

Aces

No. Career aces 14,470   John Isner 13,728   Ivo Karlović 11,478   Roger Federer 10,261   Feliciano López 10,237   Goran Ivanišević 9,074   Andy Roddick 8,879   Sam Querrey 8,858   Pete Sampras 8,342   Milos Raonic 8,138   Ivan Ljubičić

No. Aces in a season Year 1,477   Goran Ivanišević 1996 1,447   Ivo Karlović 2015 1,318   Ivo Karlović 2007 1,260   John Isner 2015 1,213   John Isner 2018 1,185   Ivo Karlović 2014 1,159   John Isner 2016 1,156   Goran Ivanišević 1994 1,131   Ivo Karlović 2016 1,123   John Isner 2017

Top 10 most aces served in a match

No.	Player	W/L	Opponent	Round	Event	Sets	Surface	Ref.
113	John Isner	W	Nicolas Mahut	1R	2010 Wimbledon	5	Grass
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

Most aces in a US Open match

No.	Player	W/L	Opponent	Round	Event	Surface	Ref.
61	Ivo Karlović	W	Lu Yen-hsun	1R	2016 US Open	Hard
52	John Isner	L	Steve Johnson	1R	2020 US Open
49	Richard Krajicek	L	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	QF	1999 US Open
	Kevin Anderson	W	Jiří Veselý	1R	2021 US Open
48	Alexander Bublik	W	Thomas Fabbiano	2R	2019 US Open
	John Isner	L	Michael Mmoh	2R	2023 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.

No.	Player	Event	Surface	Ref.
124	Martin Verkerk	2003 French Open	Clay
110	John Isner	2014 French Open
108	Michael Stich	1996 French Open
107	John Isner	2021 Madrid Open
101	John Isner	2017 Rome

Most aces in a one-week tournament

No.	Player	Event	Surface	Ref.
156	Reilly Opelka	2019 New York Open	Hard
144	John Isner	2007 Legg Mason Tennis Classic

Most aces served in a three-set match

No.	Player	W/L	Opponent	Round	Event	Surface	Ref.
45	Ivo Karlović	W	Tomáš Berdych	QF	2015 Halle	Grass
44	Mark Philippoussis	W	Byron Black	2R	1995 Kuala Lumpur	Carpet (i)
	Ivo Karlović	W	Daniel Brands	1R	2014 Zagreb	Hard (i)
	Nick Kyrgios	W	Ryan Harrison	1R	2019 Brisbane	Hard
	John Isner	L	Wu Yibing	F	2023 Dallas Open
43	Mardy Fish	L	Olivier Rochus	2R	2007 Lyon
	Reilly Opelka	W	John Isner	SF	2019 New York
	Reilly Opelka	W	Branden Schnur	F
40	Goran Ivanišević	W	Magnus Norman	1R	1997 Zagreb	Carpet (i)

Most combined aces in a three-set match

No.	Player	W/L	Opponent	Round	Event	Surface	Ref.
81	Reilly Opelka	W	John Isner	SF	2019 New York	Hard
71	Nick Kyrgios	W	Ryan Harrison	1R	2019 Brisbane

Most consecutive aces

No.	Player	W/L	Opponent	Round	Event	Surface	Ref.
10	Sam Querrey	W	James Blake	QF	2007 Indianapolis	Hard
8	Radek Štěpánek	W	Christophe Rochus	F	2006 Rotterdam	Hard (i)
7	Michael Stich	W	Guy Forget	SF	1993 Hopman Cup	Hard
	Andy Roddick	W	Sjeng Schalken	QF	2003 US Open
	Andy Roddick	L	Lleyton Hewitt	SF	2005 Australian Open
	Fernando González	W	Joachim Johansson	3R	2005 Wimbledon	Grass
	Feliciano López	L	Tomáš Berdych	2R	2013 Shanghai	Hard
	Ivo Karlović	W	Mikhail Youzhny	1R	2014 Halle	Grass
	Roger Federer	W	James Duckworth	QF	2015 Brisbane	Hard
	Sam Querrey	W	Thomas Fabbiano	SF	2019 Eastbourne	Grass

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
John Isner	L	Édouard Roger-Vasselin	SF	2013 Delray Beach
John Isner	W	Jiří Veselý	3R	2015 US Open
Reilly Opelka	W	Roberto Bautista Agut	QF	2019 Basel	Hard (i)

Most aces without a double fault

No.	Player	W/L	Opponent	Round	Event	Surface	Ref.
49	John Isner	W	Bernard Tomic	1R	2016 Davis Cup	Grass
39	Reilly Opelka	W	John Isner	SF	2022 Dallas Open	Hard
37	John Isner	W	Jerzy Janowicz	1R	2016 Australian Open
34	Ivo Karlović	W	Nicolás Massú	1R	2007 Stockholm	Hard (i)
33	Andy Roddick	W	Fernando González	4R	2010 Australian Open	Hard
31	Marat Safin	W	Andre Agassi	SF	2004 Australian Open

Seasons with 1000+ aces No. Player Years Ref. 7   John Isner 2010, 12, 15–19 4   Goran Ivanišević 1994, 96–98   Ivo Karlović 2007, 14–16 2   Milos Raonic 2012, 14   Kevin Anderson 2015, 18 1   Pete Sampras 1993   Andy Roddick 2004   Reilly Opelka 2019   Hubert Hurkacz 2023

Most seasons finished as ace leader No. Player Years 8   John Isner 2010, 12–13, 16–19, 22 6   Goran Ivanišević 1992, 94, 96–98, 2001 5   Ivo Karlović 2007–09, 14–15 3   Andy Roddick 2003–05 2   Pete Sampras 1993, 95 1   Guy Forget 1991   Richard Krajicek 1999   Marat Safin 2000   Wayne Arthurs 2002   Ivan Ljubičić 2006   Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 2011   Milos Raonic 2020   Alexander Bublik 2021   Hubert Hurkacz 2023

WTA Tour

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

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

Most aces in a match

There have been 32 matches played in which a player has served 20 or more aces, since 2008.

No.	Player	W/L	Opponent	Round	Event	Sets	Surface	Ref.
31	Kristýna Plíšková	L	Monica Puig	2R	2016 Australian Open	3	Hard
28	Kristýna Plíšková	L	Monica Puig	2R	2019 Luxembourg	3	Hard (i)
27	Sabine Lisicki	W	Belinda Bencic	2R	2015 Birmingham	2	Grass
	Caroline Garcia	L	Zhang Shuai	2R	2022 Tokyo	3	Hard
24	Kaia Kanepi	W	Lucie Šafářová	1R	2008 Tokyo	3	Hard
	Serena Williams	W	Victoria Azarenka	SF	2012 Wimbledon	2	Grass
	Kristýna Plíšková	W	Karolína Plíšková	2R	2019 Birmingham	3
	Karolína Plíšková	W	Amanda Anisimova	2R	2021 US Open	3	Hard
	Rebecca Marino	L	Caroline Garcia	2R	2022 Guadalajara Open Akron	3	Hard
23	Serena Williams	W	Zheng Jie	3R	2012 Wimbledon	3	Grass
	Kristýna Plíšková	L	Océane Dodin	1R	2016 Linz	3	Hard (i)
22	Brenda Schultz	W	Iva Majoli	QF	1994 Birmingham	3	Grass
	Meghann Shaughnessy	L	Nicole Vaidišová	F	2005 Memphis	2	Hard (i)
	Alicia Molik	L	Venus Williams	QF	2007 Tokyo	2	Hard
	Ekaterina Alexandrova	W	Kristie Ahn	QF	2019 Seoul	3
	Alison Van Uytvanck	L	Sofia Kenin	SF	2020 Lyon	3

Seasons with 500+ aces

No.	Player	Years	Ref.
2	Karolína Plíšková	2015–2016

In 1999, the Swedish artist and writer Kjell Höglund proposed a term for when an opponent manages to hit the ball without it actually entering into play. He suggested it should be called a "half-ace".

• ATP Tour records
• Fastest recorded tennis serves
• Glossary of tennis terms
• Tennis shots