Ace

In tennis, an ace is a legal serve that is not touched by the receiver, winning the point.^[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 (usually in the far corners of the service box).^[2]

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.^[3][4]

Ivo Karlović holds the third position, as he hit 78 aces^[5] 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^[6], and Raonic's came against Tobias Kamke in the 2012 SAP Open in San Jose^[7]. 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.^[8]

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.^[9]

#	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 [10]	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

Tennis portal

• Fastest recorded tennis serves

References

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