Average Professional Tennis Serves Speed (Everything You Need To Know About The Average Serve Speed In Tennis!)

Last Updated on November 13, 2020 by

The fastest serves have an average speed of 148 mph (238km/h), while the median speed of the fastest serves is 146 mph (235km/h). Serve speed is calculated in km/h and it ranges from 230 km/h to 263 km/h (33km/h). Also, speed serve can be calculated in mph and it ranges from 143 mph to 163.4 mph (20.4 mph). 

One of tennis’ major talking points is the serve speed. Even as way back in the early 1920s, Bill Tilden’s cannonball serve was the talk of the town, has been said that the serve clocked at 163.3 mph. Other tennis players of the regime were dominated by Bill Tilden’s powerful serve speed. Top players like the Williams sisters, Roscoe Tanner, Pancho Gonzalez, Andy Roddick, Stan Smith, and Pete Sampras all used their triple-digit serve speeds to knock out their opponents to win Grand Slam titles, even if having a big serve today won’t guarantee you success on tour. 

Honestly, there are no proper verification for all the reports of fast and big serves from yesteryear since the racquets used by those players are oversized and are mostly made from graphite; we saw average players with increased serve speed to the point that spectators could no longer keep up with the ball. That’s how fast it was! 

Not quite long after the 1980s era, an introduction of the popular Cyclops’ infrared beams, and later the Hawk-Eye system came to be. These assisted line judging innovations help line judges make call of the lines on serves. These innovations were not the only tech that were introduced in this classic sport, a radar gun, a piece of kit which helps to measure the speed of a serve was later introduced during the 1989 season at the International Players Championships in Miami. 

The ballistic chronometer was one of the unreliable technologies that were used to measure serve speeds previously, but the occurrence of the radar gun in tennis delivers quicker, more precise reading, and most importantly offered a numerical talking point to the tour which could be used to promote tennis star players and the game itself.  In this article, we are going to talk fully about the average professional tennis serve speed, the fastest tennis server ever recorded, the fastest servers in tennis, ATP’s men top 36 fastest servers ever, and women’s top 16 fastest servers ever. Let’s take a look! 

What Is The Fastest Tennis Server Ever Recorded?

Sam Groth, an Australian, at the Challenger event in Busan on May 9, 2012, set a record of the world’s fastest serve ever made at 163.7 mph (263.4 kph). It was in three-match point that the bullet serve was made during his second-round match against an opponent from Belarus, Uladzimir Ignatik. It was only bad to know that he lost the match 4-6, 3-6. Rather than being a short, stocky guy, Groth is a guy with a bulky muscular build. He measures 6’4” (193) in height. His height and physique gave him both long levers and a lot of power to get high speeds through racquet. Growth proved that his speed serves were no fluke in 2015 when he played against Federer at Wimbledon. We saw the footage from that match where he clocked 147 mph on serve. 

Who Are The Fastest Servers In Tennis?

The official serve speed rankings are not maintained or even published by WTA, ATP, and ITF, but a company known as the SportsMEDIA Technology (SMT) , who has a complete dataset and have been tracking serve speed for more than two decades. 

Men’s Top 37 Fastest Serves Ever (ATP)

We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of the men tennis players with the fastest serves in ATP history. Though we only listed each players with their fastest serve in the table. 

RankPlayerNationalitySpeedEventTypeRound
1Sam GrothAustralia263.0 km/h (163.4 mph)2012 Busan Open Challenger TennisSingles2R
2Albano OlivettiFrance257.5 km/h (160.0 mph)2012 Internazionali Trofeo Lame Perrel–FaipSingles1R
3John IsnerUnited States253.0 km/h (157.2 mph)2016 Davis CupSingles1R
4Ivo KarlovićCroatia251.0 km/h (156.0 mph)2011 Davis CupDoubles1R
5Jerzy JanowiczPoland251.0 km/h (156.0 mph)2012 Pekao Szczecin OpenSingles1R
6Andy RoddickUnited States249.4 km/h (155.0 mph)2004 Davis CupSinglesSF
7Milos RaonicCanada249.4 km/h (155.0 mph)2012 SAP OpenSinglesSF
8Joachim JohanssonSweden244.6 km/h (152.0 mph)2004 Davis CupDoubles1R
 9Feliciano LópezSpain244.6 km/h (152.0 mph)2014 Aegon ChampionshipsSingles1R
10Marius CopilRomania244.0 km/h (151.6 mph)2016 European OpenSinglesQF
11Hubert HurkaczPoland243.0 km/h (151.0 mph)2016 Davis CupSingles1R
12Taylor DentUnited States241.0 km/h (149.8 mph)2006 ABN AMRO World Tennis TournamentSingles1R
13Juan Martín del PotroArgentina240.0 km/h (149.1 mph)2017 Stockholm OpenSinglesF
14Greg RusedskiUnited Kingdom239.8 km/h (149.0 mph)1998 Newsweek Champions CupSinglesSF
15Dmitry TursunovRussia237.0 km/h (147.3 mph)2006 Davis CupSinglesSF
 16Jo-Wilfried TsongaFrance237.0 km/h (147.3 mph)2014 Rogers CupSinglesQF
 17Frances TiafoeUnited States237.0 km/h (147.3 mph)2018 Estoril OpenSinglesF
 18Taylor FritzUnited States237.0 km/h (147.3 mph)2020 US OpenSingles3R
19Gaël MonfilsFrance235.0 km/h (146.0 mph)2007 Legg Mason Tennis ClassicSinglesQF
 20Dušan VemićSerbia235.0 km/h (146.0 mph)2008 Countrywide ClassicSingles?
 21Marin ČilićCroatia235.0 km/h (146.0 mph)2016 Davis CupSingles1R
22Ivan LjubičićCroatia234.0 km/h (145.4 mph)2005 Mutua Madrileña Masters MadridSinglesF
 23Stan WawrinkaSwitzerland234.0 km/h (145.4 mph)2014 Davis CupDoublesF
24Grigor DimitrovBulgaria233.4 km/h (145.0 mph)2013 Aegon ChampionshipsSingles?
 25Reilly OpelkaUnited States233.4 km/h (145.0 mph)2016 U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships??
 26Viktor TroickiSerbia233.4 km/h (145.0 mph)2017 Davis Cup??
27Nicolás JarryChile233.0 km/h (144.8 mph)2018 Davis Cup?1R
28Fernando VerdascoSpain232.0 km/h (144.2 mph)2009 French Open??
 29Dominic ThiemAustria232.0 km/h (144.2 mph)2017 Gerry Weber Open??
30Mardy FishUnited States231.7 km/h (144 mph)2007 Pacific Life OpenSingles1R
 31Marcin MatkowskiPoland231.7 km/h (144 mph)2009 ATP World Tour FinalsDoubles?
32Robin SöderlingSweden230.1 km/h (143.0 mph)2010 ATP World Tour FinalsSinglesRR
 33Nick KyrgiosAustralia230.1 km/h (143.0 mph)2019 WimbledonSingles2R
 34Roger FedererSwitzerland230.1 km/h (143.0 mph)2010 Gerry Weber Open??
35Martin VerkerkNetherlands230.0 km/h (142.9 mph)2003 Breil Milano Indoor??
 36Nicolás AlmagroSpain230.0 km/h (142.9 mph)2016 Argentina Open??

The Criteria Used

1. 230 km/h (143 mph) minimum standard speed is what the men’s serves must be recorded at. 

2. We only record a player with his highest serve speed. For example, Roger Federer has many serves over 135 mph, by we only recorded his fastest at 230.1 km/h 143.0 mph. 

3. We only added the oldest serve if the different players have their serves recorded at the same speed. 

Women’s Top 17 Fastest Serves Ever (WTA)

We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of the women tennis players with the fastest serves in ATP history.

The Criteria Used

1. The serves of women category must be recorded over or at 124 mph (200 km/h) minimum standard speed

2. We only record a player with his highest serve speed. For example, Georgina Garcia Perez has many serves over 125 mph, but we only recorded her fastest at 220.0 km/h 136.7 mph. 

RankPlayerNationalitySpeedEvent
1Georgina Garcia PérezSpain220.0 km/h (136.7 mph)2018 Hungarian Ladies Open
2Aryna SabalenkaBelarus214.0 km/h (133.0 mph)2018 WTA Elite Trophy
3Sabine LisickiGermany210.8 km/h (131.0 mph)2014 Stanford Classic
4Brenda Schultz-McCarthyNetherlands209.2 km/h (130.0 mph)2006 Cincinnati Masters (qualifiers)
5Venus WilliamsUnited States207.6 km/h (129.0 mph)2007 US Open
6Serena WilliamsUnited States207.0 km/h (128.6 mph)2013 Australian Open
 7Ivana JorovićSerbia207.0 km/h (128.6 mph)2017 Fed Cup
8Julia GörgesGermany203.0 km/h (126.1 mph)2012 French Open
 9Caroline GarciaFrance203.0 km/h (126.1 mph)2016 Fed Cup
10Brenda Schultz-McCarthyNetherlands202.7 km/h (126.0 mph)2007 Indian Wells Masters
11Nadiya KichenokUkraine202.0 km/h (125.5 mph)2014 Australian Open
12Lucie HradeckáCzech Republic201.2 km/h (125.0 mph)2015 Wimbledon
 13Naomi OsakaJapan201.2 km/h (125.0 mph)2016 US Open
14Anna-Lena GrönefeldGermany201.1 km/h (125.0 mph)2009 Indian Wells Masters
15Ana IvanovicSerbia201.0 km/h (124.9 mph)2007 French Open
 16Denisa AllertováCzech Republic201.0 km/h (124.9 mph)2015 Australian Open

Final Words

Once again, the fastest serves have an average speed of 148 mph (238km/h), while the median speed of the fastest serves is 146 mph (235km/h). We’ve come to the end of this article, we hope you now know the average professional tennis serve speed. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or comments. 

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