Ace

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In tennis, an ace is a legal serve that is not returned because the server's opponent never touches the ball with their racket, thereby losing 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) or a kick, or topspin, serve (to the ad court).

On 18 September 2009, Ivo Karlović hit 78 aces (77 aces on 1st serve)^[3] in a Davis Cup match against Radek Štěpánek, to break his own record for most aces in a match. Interestingly, Karlović lost the match. The record for the fastest ace (as well as the fastest overall serve) is held by Andy Roddick who served a 155 mph (~249 km/h) ace against Vladimir Voltchkov during the 2004 Davis Cup.^[4]

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.

The Croatian players Karlović, Ljubičić and Ančić are currently best known for their aces, leading the ATP statistics in the number of aces served.

Goran Ivanišević, also Croatian, holds the record for most aces served in a year with 1477 in the 1996 season.

References