What Is the Fastest Tennis Serve Ever Recorded?

Australian tennis player Sam Groth hit the world’s fastest tennis serve ever on May 9, 2012, in Busan, South Korea, and his tennis serve speed is 163.7 mph(263.4 kph). He is a right-handed player and is 6’11” (193 cm) tall.

The fastest and the most powerful serves always offer an added advantage to tennis players. The faster they serve, the better. At the same time, the serves need not necessarily help to win the match all the time. However, they play a vital part in a player’s arsenal and can be a game-changer.

If you blink, you miss the player’s best serve. This is how we can explain how fast men’s tennis serve speed would be. The tennis serve is considered the most important shot in the sport. It will set the tone for the remaining point and become an important shot for a player because he can have complete control over it. Several player’s serve are so powerful that they can have complete control that will give an advantage to the player/team.

Who is the Fastest Tennis Serve?

The WTA, ATP, and ITF usually don’t record the official serve speed rankings for many reasons including serving speed can’t be captured on all courts at all the tournaments, and sometimes the technology they use isn’t consistent for all events. The complete data are recorded by Sports Media Technology (SMT) which has been recording service speeds for more than 30 years.

5 Fastest Tennis Serve Ever

According to the most complete data, we have put together the 5 fastest servers in men’s tennis. Let’s have a look!

1. Sam Groth: 163. 4 MPH

Sam Groth’s record-breaking serve is 163.4 MPH. He delivered the fastest tennis serve at the 2012 Busan Open.

2. Albano Olivetti: 160 MPH

The French professional tennis player is well known for his second fastest serve on record at 160 mph or 257.5 km/h at the 2012 Internazionali Trofeo Lame Perrel–Faip.

3. John Isner: 157.2 MPH

According to the ATP’s official record, John Isner holds the fastest serve at 253 km/h (157.2 mph). The list is incomplete if Isner’s fastest serve didn’t include, presently, he sits in third place in the fastest server list. He is a famous American professional tennis player who holds the number 8 in men’s singles by the ATP(Association of Tennis Professionals). He is known as one of the best servers ever to play on the ATP Tour.

4. Ivo Karlović: 156 MPH

In 2011, during Davis Cup doubles Karlovic hit his fourth fastest serve. He is known as one of the best tennis servers of all time and also holds the record for most career aces, with 13,402. He is one of the four players to reach 10,000 aces in his career.

The 6-foot-10 Croatian professional tennis player Karlovic said: “I noticed that while serving, saw it on the screen.”

5. Jerzy Janowicz: 156 MPH

Jerzy Janowicz is a Poland professional tennis player who had numerous excellent aces in 2012 at the Pekao Szczecin Open. He hit the fifth fastest serve in tennis history at 156 mph (251.1 kph) during the 2011 Davis Cup doubles match against Germany.

Also Read: Fascinating History of Tennis