Top 10 Fastest Tennis Serves

The speed of tennis serves has increased dramatically over the decades as racket technologies have improved, therefore it is no surprise that the vast majority of the fastest serves for ATP and WTA tennis players occurred after the year 2000.

This article will look at the top 10 fastest tennis serves that have been recorded on the ATP or the WTA Tours.

I will also look at how fast top tennis players like Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Serena Williams hit their serves.

Top 10 Fastest Tennis Serves in Men’s Tennis

Below is a list of the top 10 tennis serves ever recorded on the ATP Tour with four out of the ten players coming from the USA as they have a long tradition of producing fast servers e.g. Andy Roddick, John Isner, and Pete Sampras.

Out of the top 10 servers below, only two have won grand slam titles (Andy Roddick and Juan Martin Del Potro), which shows that tennis is no longer a game dominated by big servers as it was in the 1990s.

You may also be surprised that top players like Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Rafael Nadal who have between them 63 grand slam singles titles, are not in the top 10 serves list.

Roger Federer comes closest with a fastest recorded serve of 230.1 km/h (143.0 mph) which was recorded at the 2010 Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany.

Top 10 Fastest Men’s Serves Ever Recorded

The Australian Sam Groth currently holds the record for the fastest serve ever in men’s tennis after he hit a (263.0 km/h (163.4 mph)) serve at a Challenger event in Busan in South Korea.

However, the ATP does not recognize this as it was in an ATP Challenger event and not on the main ATP tour.

Therefore, the big serving American John Isner currently holds the record for the fastest recorded men’s serve that is also recognized by the ATP with a 253km/h (157.2mph) serve, that he hit during a Davis Cup match against Australia in 2006.

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina hit the fastest serve in 2022 with a 252km/h (156.6mph) serve at the 2022 Rome Open.

*Not Recognized by the ATP

Top 10 Fastest Tennis Serves in Women’s Tennis

Although the average speed on the WTA tour is slower than on the ATP tour, there are still plenty of female players that can hit as fast if not faster than many male players on the ATP Tour.

The list below details the top 10 fastest women’s tennis serves ever recorded on the WTA Tour and similar to the men, the vast majority were recorded post the year 2000.

Top 10 Fastest Women’s Serves Ever Recorded

Georgina Garcia Perez currently holds the record for the fastest serve in women’s tennis after she hit a (220.0 km/h (136.7 mph)) serve at the 2018 Hungarian Ladies Open.

However, this is not recognized by the WTA Tour so Sabine Lisicki currently holds the official record for the Fastest Women’s Serve Ever Recorded for her 210.8km/h (131mph) serve at the Stanford Classic in 2014.

I hope one day you will give me the World Record Guinness @WTA @WTA_insider
I don’t really know what to do 😅#WorldRecordGuinness #FastestServe #Huracan #HuracanGeorgi #GeorginaGarcia #Huracaneros #WTA #WTABudapest @HUNgarianTENNIS @head_tennis @lottosportitaly @spaintenis pic.twitter.com/gpFgzLstj0

— Georgina Garcia (@HuracanGeorgi) February 19, 2018

More recently, Coco Gauff hit a 206.0km/h (128mph) at the 2022 US Open, which put her tenth on the list, just behind Serena Williams and Ivana Jorovic.

*Not recognized by the WTA Tour

Honorable Mentions

Below is a list of the fastest serves hit by some of the top players on the ATP and WTA Tours including Novak Djokovic (136.0 mph), Nick Kyrgios (143.0 mph), Alexander Zverev (144.0 mph), Dominic Thiem (144.2 mph), and Matteo Berrettini (146.0 mph).