This article lists the fastest record serve speeds for men's and women's professional tennis.
The fastest recorded serve is by Sam Groth, at 163.7 mph (263.4 km/h) at a Challenger event. His second fastest record speed, and his fastest at an ATP event, was 147 mph at Wimbledon.[1][2] Similarly, John Isner once hit a serve recorded at 157.0 mph (253.0 km/h) in the first round of the 2016 Davis Cup. One of the next fastest recorded speeds for Isner is 144 mph and the fastest serve in most of his matches is between 137 and 142 mph.[3] The fastest recorded speed that is not an outlier is 149 mph by Ben Shelton. At 20 years old, the American Ben Shelton served at 149 mph twice in the same game during the 1/8 finals of the 2023 US Open.[4] Shelton has reached speeds of 147 mph to 149 mph on multiple occasions.[5]
This list is not historically complete. For instance, not listed here, Roscoe Tanner's serve was clocked at 153 mph at Palm Springs in 1978 during the final against Raúl Ramírez. There are also reports that Bill Tilden had a serve that was clocked at 163.3 mph but there is nothing to verify that.[6] Also, Ellsworth Vines in the Wimbledon finals of 1932 clocked 121 mph (without Radar).[7] Udayachand Shetty's winning serve was clocked by radar at 120 mph using a wooden racquet, at the Gilbey Gins fast serve contest held in Chicago on 24 July 1976.[8] This qualified him to take part in the finals at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills Queens on 20 August 1976.
Colin Dibley of Australia won the event with a serve of 130 mph.[9]
Men's serves must be recorded at or over 230 km/h (142.9 mph) minimum standard speed.
Women's serves must be recorded at or over 200 km/h (124.3 mph) minimum standard speed.[12]
Only one serve per player is recorded here. For example, Andy Roddick has several 225.3 km/h (140 mph) or faster serves on his record but only his personal best of 249 km/h (155 mph) is included.[13]
In cases where more than one serve has been recorded at the same speed, the oldest recorded serve is listed first.
Men
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.
^Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard recorded a second serve 148 mph (238kmh) during the Final of the 2024 Basel Open but the serve was counted as a let
^He has a recorded serve speed of 4,718 km/h (2,932 mph) according the ATP tour match statistics against Rafael Nadal in the 2022 Italian Open, but this record is assumed to be a recording error.[17]
^His fastest verified serve clocked in at 149.3 mph (240 km/h) in the 2013 Davis Cup and he produced a 150.4 mph (242 km/h) serve during his run in the 2012 Paris Masters, but it was a let.[20]
^He has a recorded serve speed of 153 mph according to the speed gun and displayed during the match against Lloyd Harris in the 2024 Wimbledon Championships, but this record was found to be a recording error per IBM and corrected to 132 mph.[32]
^He had a recorded speed of 242.0 km/h (150 mph) at 2018 Wimbledon, but officials revoked the reading due to errors with the radar gun.[43]
Women
The WTA doesn't keep official serve speed rankings of its own for all its events for a variety of reasons—mainly that serve speed isn't captured on every court at every tournament, and sometimes the technology being used isn't consistent from event to event. The Women's Tennis Association does have an external partner that it officially recognizes which measures and maintains serve speed data at selected number of events. It does not recognize at all, nor keep tabs of speed records set outside the main draw phase of WTA Tour tournaments. Therefore, serve speeds recorded from the qualifying phase of WTA tournaments are not added to the official WTA serve speed statistics. Also WTA tournament serve speeds recorded by different measurement systems or brands (at the discretion of the host or organizer) that are not using technology provided by ATP/WTA's official supplier or partner (currently SMT/IDS), or speeds recorded at any of the non-WTA professional women's tournaments such as the ITF Women's Circuit, the Fed Cup, and Olympics tennis are not added to WTA's official list of records.
^"IDS (Information and Display Systems) only collects serve speed data on show courts at certain events (11 in 2014) and started doing so in 1989 ... Players who have had multiple Top 10 fastest serves only have their top one listed, and if they hit that top speed multiple times, just the first time they did it is listed." http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/1978722/title/ids-serve-speed-leadersArchived 2016-01-01 at the Wayback Machine
^Lucay, Carlos González (5 February 2018). "Un saque supersónico". La Tercera. Archived from the original on 25 September 2018. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
