Fastest Servers in Tennis History
Serve is one of the strongest weapons а tennis player can have. One of the surest ways to perform strong serves is to be at least 1.85m (6'1 ft) tall. The players with the best serves are over 2m (6'7 ft) tall.
There are many great servers currently on tour, and the tennis player with the best serve from this generation was arguably John Isner, who retired at the 2023 US Open. We will talk more about him, but first, let's start with the shortest player on our list who has been remembered as a great server.
Andy Roddick
Many regard Roddick as the greatest server under 1.90m (6'2 ft) tall. His height is 1.88m (6'1 ft), but in his career, he was remembered as a player whose strongest weapon was his serve. He has achieved some amazing things - for example 7 consecutive aces in the semi-final of the 2005 Australian Open against Leyton Hewitt. According to several sources, the fastest serve of the former No. 1's career came against Vladimir Voltchkov of Belarus in the semifinal of the 2004 Davis Cup. He hit a serve of 249.4 km/h (155 mph).Ben Shelton
Ben Shelton is one of the young talents of men's tennis. The 20-year-old American showed the best form of his career so far at the US Open 2023, reaching the semi-finals. Shelton is known for the incredible speed of his serves. Almost every serve from Shelton's racket was over 200 km/h (124 mph). His record, however, was in the 1/8 final against his compatriot Tommy Paul, where he hit an astonishing 239 km/h (149 mph) first serve.John Isner
After 16 years on tour, Isner retired from professional tennis at his beloved Grand Slam tournament - the US Open. Many think that Isner, along with the Croatian Ivo Karlovic, were the two players with the best serve over the last 15 years. In fact, John Isner holds the ATP record for the fastest-recorded tennis serve. It was recorded at 253.0 km/h (157.2 mph) in the first round of the 2016 Davis Cup.Reilly Opelka
The next player on the list is another American - Reilly Opelka. He doesn't have the success of Isner yet, but he still has time to achieve or surpass it, as he is only 26 years old. Opelka is 2.11m (6'9 ft) tall and that helps him a lot when it comes to his serve. He is also the player with the fastest second serve in history – 233 km/h (144 mph). It was recorded at the Italian Open in 2021.Sam Groth
And here we have the tennis player with the fastest serve ever in the history of the sport - Sam Groth. His record serve was set at the ATP Challenger tournament in Busan in 2012. Its speed was 263 km/h (163 mph). Curiously enough, right now Groth is very distant from tennis. He's currently a politician in Australia – Shadow Minister for Tourism, Sport and Events.
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