An Ace is a point won in tennis when the receiver is unable to touch the serve of the player serving. Aces have been recorded in tennis history since 1991. Aces in singles from the Grand Slam events and the ATP World tour events and the Olympics (from 2008 onwards) are recorded by the ATP.
Giant American John Isner is the new world record holder for serving maximum aces in history. Isner served 54 aces in his 1st round win over Frenchman Enzo Coucaad at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships and 36 aces in his 2nd round win over Andy Murray. He was just 4 short of the record of 13728 aces served by another giant Ivo Karlovic, who at 6’11 is the joint tallest player in history along with American Reilly Opelka who too is serving up various tennis records in his short career so far. Isner holds the record for the fastest ever 1st serve, which was 253 km/hr. Opelka holds the record for the fastest 2nd serve, which was 233 km/hr.
Isner needed just 4 aces to equal Karlovic when he took on Jannick Sinner in the 3rd round. He served 3 aces in his 1st service game and 4 aces in his second. Overall he served 24 aces but Sinner with a steady game neutralised other aspects and had a straight-set win over Isner, who in 3 matches this year at Wimbledon served 114 aces.
114 in 3 matches is quite high. Well, the number of aces in a single match is just 1 short of 114, and it is held by Isner. He has the record of maximum aces in a single match, which was 113 aces against Nicolas Mahut in a match that spanned 3 days. That match was played for 11 hours 5 minutes and is the longest match ever played. It led to 5th set tie-breaker rules being changed. The record of maximum aces in a match without a double fault is also held by Isner. This was versus Bernard Tomic of Australia in the 2016 Davis Cup in which he served 49 aces. Isner has won 16 tour titles, and his best performances on the circuit are an SF appearance at Wimbledon, and a Miami Open Winning performance.
In this article I look at players who have served 1000 aces in a season, all the players with 1000 aces in a season, players with 100 aces in a match, players with 10000 aces in their career, and so on.
American Reilly Opelka, a former Wimbledon junior Champion, became just the 8th player to have 1000 aces in a tennis season during Basel 2019. Opelka’s breakthrough win, coincidentally was against two big servers, first Jack Sock and Isner himself, at the 2019 Australian Open. He repeated his win against Isner a month later as well with his 1st tour title at New York ATP. The 24 year young American is currently world number 18 and has won 4 ATP titles. His huge serve will always make him a threat to any player facing him.
Isner has served 1000 aces in a season as many as 7 times, while Ivo Karlovic and Goran Ivanisevic have 1000 aces in a season 4 times each. Kevin Anderson and Milos Raonic have done so twice, while Andy Roddick, Pete Sampras, and Reilly Opelka have performed the feat once each. Pete Sampras was the 1st to do so in 1993 and Goran did so in the following year itself. Goran has the maximum number of aces in a single season, 1477 in 1996.
100 aces in a match have been done twice, both in the same match when Isner had 113 and Nicholas Mahut had 103. This was in their marathon 1st round in Wimbledon 2010, which is the longest match in history. Isner also has the maximum aces in a single tournament, 214 in 2018 Wimbledon while Goran with 213 in his 2001 triumph follows him. Roger Federer has the record for maximum aces in a tournament final. This was at the 2009 Wimbledon final when he served 50 aces during his five-set win over Andy Roddick.
There are five players with over 10000 aces in their careers. Ivo Karlovic heads the list with 13728, followed by Isner with 13724, just 4 less. The third is Federer with 11478, 4th is Feliciano Lopez with 10201, and 5th is Goran Ivanisevic with 10131. Karlovic and Opelka (the newest into 1000 aces in a season club), are both 211 cm tall, the joint tallest players in history.
Spaniard, Feliciano Lopez, who was the 5th person to serve 10000 aces has the longevity record of participating in 79 Grand Slams in a row and he broke Roger Federer’s record of 65 comfortably. This incredible streak recently came to an end in the 2022 French Open when he lost to 166th-ranked Gian Marco Moroni. Lopez started his streak with the 2002 French Open and it ended with the 2022 Australian Open. He entered the QF at Wimbledon thrice and the QF of the US Open once. He is currently the director of the Madrid Open but still plays top-level tennis.
Another interesting ace stat is that Sam Querrey is the only player to serve 10 aces in a row. This was against James Blake in 2007 at Indianapolis. Sam Querrey too has served almost 9000 aces and looks likely to be the 6th player to join the 10000 ace clubs sometime in the future. The next two current players on the all-time aces list are Raonic (8136) and Cilic (7778).
Congrats Isner for the all-time aces record.
ritesh.misra 