Ace (tennis)

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

ATP Tour

John Isner holds the professional records for most aces in a match Wimbledon 2010, an entire tournament Wimbledon 2018, and also first on the most aces in career list .

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. John Isner has served the most aces with 14,470.^[6][7]

Milos Raonic hit 47 aces in 2024 Queen's, the most in a best-of-three-set match.^[8] Ivo Karlović became the only player to hit at least 40 aces in three consecutive matches during 2015 Wimbledon.^[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]

Aces

See also: ATP Tour records § Aces

No. Career aces[12][13] 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 8,445 Milos Raonic 8,170 Marin Čilić

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	[14][15]
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	[16][15]

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	[17]
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		[18]

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	[19]
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	[20]
144	John Isner	2007 Legg Mason Tennis Classic		[4]

Most aces served in a three-set match

No.	Player	W/L	Opponent	Round	Event	Surface	Ref.
47	Milos Raonic	W	Cameron Norrie	1R	2024 Queen's	Grass	[8][21]
45	Ivo Karlović	W	Tomáš Berdych	QF	2015 Halle		[22][21]
44	Mark Philippoussis	W	Byron Black	2R	1995 Kuala Lumpur	Carpet (i)	[23][21]
	Ivo Karlović	W	Daniel Brands	1R	2014 Zagreb	Hard (i)
	Nick Kyrgios	W	Ryan Harrison	1R	2019 Brisbane	Hard	[24][21]
	John Isner	L	Wu Yibing	F	2023 Dallas Open		[25][21]
43	Mardy Fish	L	Olivier Rochus	2R	2007 Lyon		[23]
	Reilly Opelka	W	John Isner	SF	2019 New York		[4]
	Reilly Opelka	W	Brayden Schnur	F
40	Goran Ivanišević	W	Magnus Norman	1R	1997 Zagreb	Carpet (i)	[23]

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	[26][27]
71	Nick Kyrgios	W	Ryan Harrison	1R	2019 Brisbane		[24]

Most consecutive aces

No.	Player	W/L	Opponent	Round	Event	Surface	Ref.
10	Sam Querrey	W	James Blake	QF	2007 Indianapolis	Hard	[28][29]
8	Radek Štěpánek	W	Christophe Rochus	F	2006 Rotterdam	Hard (i)	[30]
7	Michael Stich	W	Guy Forget	SF	1993 Hopman Cup	Hard	[31]
	Andy Roddick	W	Sjeng Schalken	QF	2003 US Open		[32]
	Andy Roddick	L	Lleyton Hewitt	SF	2005 Australian Open		[33][34]
	Fernando González	W	Joachim Johansson	3R	2005 Wimbledon	Grass	[35]
	Feliciano López	L	Tomáš Berdych	2R	2013 Shanghai	Hard	[36]
	Ivo Karlović	W	Mikhail Youzhny	1R	2014 Halle	Grass	[37]
	Roger Federer	W	James Duckworth	QF	2015 Brisbane	Hard	[38]
	Sam Querrey	W	Thomas Fabbiano	SF	2019 Eastbourne	Grass	[39]

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	[40]
John Isner	L	Édouard Roger-Vasselin	SF	2013 Delray Beach		[41]
John Isner	W	Jiří Veselý	3R	2015 US Open		[42]
Reilly Opelka	W	Roberto Bautista Agut	QF	2019 Basel	Hard (i)	[43]

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	[44]
39	Reilly Opelka	W	John Isner	SF	2022 Dallas Open	Hard	[45]
37	John Isner	W	Jerzy Janowicz	1R	2016 Australian Open		[14]
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		[46][47]

Seasons with 1000+ aces No. Player Years Ref. 7 John Isner 2010, 12, 15–19 [48][49] 4 Goran Ivanišević 1994, 96–98 [50] Ivo Karlović 2007, 14–16 2 Milos Raonic 2012, 14 [50][51] Kevin Anderson 2015, 18 [48][52] 1 Pete Sampras 1993 [53] Andy Roddick 2004 [50] Reilly Opelka 2019 [54] Hubert Hurkacz 2023 [55]

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.^[56]

Most aces in a match

There have been 32 matches played in which a player has served 20 or more aces, since 2008.^[57]

No.	Player	W/L	Opponent	Round	Event	Sets	Surface	Ref.
31	Kristýna Plíšková	L	Monica Puig	2R	2016 Australian Open	3	Hard	[57]
29	Rebecca Marino	L	Taila Gibson	QF	2025 Tokyo	3	Hard
28	Kristýna Plíšková	L	Monica Puig	2R	2019 Luxembourg	3	Hard (i)	[57]
27	Sabine Lisicki	W	Belinda Bencic	2R	2015 Birmingham	2	Grass
	Caroline Garcia	L	Zhang Shuai	2R	2022 Tokyo	3	Hard	[58]
24	Kaia Kanepi	W	Lucie Šafářová	1R	2008 Tokyo	3	Hard	[59]
	Serena Williams	W	Victoria Azarenka	SF	2012 Wimbledon	2	Grass	[57]
	Kristýna Plíšková	W	Karolína Plíšková	2R	2019 Birmingham	3
	Karolína Plíšková	W	Amanda Anisimova	2R	2021 US Open	3	Hard	[60][61]
	Rebecca Marino	L	Caroline Garcia	2R	2022 Guadalajara Open Akron	3	Hard	[62]
23	Serena Williams	W	Zheng Jie	3R	2012 Wimbledon	3	Grass	[57]
	Kristýna Plíšková	L	Océane Dodin	1R	2016 Linz	3	Hard (i)
	Zheng Qinwen	W	Naomi Osaka	1R	2024 Berlin	3	Grass	[63]
22	Brenda Schultz	W	Iva Majoli	QF	1994 Birmingham	3	Grass	[64]
	Meghann Shaughnessy	L	Nicole Vaidišová	F	2005 Memphis	2	Hard (i)	[65]
	Alicia Molik	L	Venus Williams	QF	2007 Tokyo	2	Hard
	Ekaterina Alexandrova	W	Kristie Ahn	QF	2019 Seoul	3		[57]
	Alison Van Uytvanck	L	Sofia Kenin	SF	2020 Lyon	3
	Clara Tauson	L	Sofia Kenin	2R	2024 Toray	3
	Rebecca Marino	W	Ayano Shimizu	1R	2025 Tokyo	3

Most seasons finished as ace leader

Note: Most aces served in a season since 2010.^[66]

No.	Player	Years
5	Karolína Plíšková	2015–17, 19, 21	[66]
3	Serena Williams	2012–14	[66]
2	Caroline Garcia	2022–23	[67][68]
1	Nadia Petrova	2010	[66]
	Marion Bartoli	2011
	Julia Görges	2018
	Elena Rybakina	2020	[69]
	Zheng Qinwen	2024	[70]

Seasons with 500+ aces

Karolína Plíšková has the most aces in a single season with 530 in 2016,^[71] which broke her own record of 517 in 2015.^[72] 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.^[73]

No.	Player	Years	Ref.
2	Karolína Plíšková	2015–2016	[74][71]

Most aces in WTA 1000s in a season

Elena Rybakina has served the most aces in WTA 1000 events in a season with 235 in 2023, the most since 2009. Followed by Karolína Plíšková with 234 and Serena Williams with 233.^[75]

Half-ace

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".^[76]

See also

• Tennis portal

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