The success of tennis players is greatly influenced by their serving. Not many players on the professional tour are able to reach greater speeds and turn them into aces.
Discover the five tennis players with the quickest serves in this in-depth study. Only players whose rapid serves have been acknowledged by the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) have been included in this list.
1. Ben Shelton (United States)
Specifically, Ben Shelton is one of those young people invited to challenge the current state of international tennis: he is the tennis player with the quickest serve.
At the 2023 U.S. Open, the American shocked everyone by stealthily entering the semifinal while still very unknown.
In a performance where he served the quickest of the season—239.7 kilometers per hour. A pretty surface-to-air missile against which his compatriot Tommy Paul could hardly muster action.
He touched the ball with his racquet but couldn’t return it. By setting 241.4 km/h on the speed counter at Indian Wells 2024, he broke his record—curiosities of life, with Paul as a rival.
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Although Shelton is the exception that shows the norm, we noted that the brightest young people on the circuit are not driven by smashing speed records on the serve.
The one from Atlanta stands for the countercultural point of view on dominant tennis—a technique more closely connected to Pete Sampras than to the legacy left by the Big Three.
Commonly seen in each match, at 233 km/h, he scored the second most potent serve of the 2023 Australian Open. Shelton lacks a certain degree of control, yet he is pure power.
With a serve rating of 281.2, the North American averages ten aces every match. Under this criteria, he ranks eleventh among all the servers worldwide.
A classification that is not terrible at all but very low for a specialist. What is the main negative of his game? His 4.1 double faults per game count as errors.
2. Hubert Hurkacz (Poland)
Today’s outstanding server is Hubert Hurkacz. That is as basic as it gets. Apart from having a bazooka for an arm, the Polish tennis player combines sniper grace.
He is the ATP tennis player with the highest serve rating in the world, 297.4, so proving this. He also averages 14.6 serve points each game, the highest mark available.
Alexei Popyrin adds 11.2 aces per match to consider the impressiveness of the statistics in this second division—one noticeable difference. More already, the 1.96-meter tennis player can send serves at supersonic speeds.
Not in vain, Hurkacz led Wimbledon in 2023 with the quickest serve. In his fourth-round encounter with Djokovic, the Pole threw a ball at 226.9 kilometers per hour.
The Pole proved his basic savvy in the game by hitting 33 aces against the world number one. Duplicating the same statistic at the 2024 Australian Open, he showed that carrying the ball at those speeds is by no means a one-day success.
Leading the circuit with 1,031 aces, he became the first player under 2 meters to reach 1,000 direct serves in a season since Milos Raonic accomplished in 2014.
Furthermore, he possesses the ninth fastest serve in history; he placed the ball at 243 km/h in a 2016 A Davis Cup match.
3. Taylor Fritz (United States)
For reasons other than his speed, Taylor Fritz is among the top serving tennis players in the world.
In reality, Americans can launch missiles at speeds such as the 228.5 km/h he achieved at the 2023 US Open or the 217.6 km/h he set as the record at Wimbledon in the same year.
Nevertheless, the unpredictability of his direction is the one aspect of his service that sticks out.
The one hailing from San Diego either delivers a fastball to the target or uses a more creative serve to trick his opponent.
There are several paths he can take, leaving his opponent guessing.
Given this, it’s easy to see why he finished the 2023 season with 692 aces, good enough to tie for second place.
Additionally, he is skilled at it. He ranks seventh on the circuit in this statistical segment for his 286.3 serve efficiency (he ranks sixth on the hard court with a rating of 289).
Take Carlos Alcaraz, for instance, who has a 283.4 efficiency rating.
4. Alexander Zverev (Germany)
Tennis player Alexander Zverev stands at 1.98 meters, which typically gives him a clear height advantage when serving.
The Germans can also put the ball in play at the velocities seen in sports cars. He proved it at the 2023 U.S. Open with a serve that touched 222 km/h. That same year, he reached 220.4 km per hour at Wimbledon, a record he repeated.
Overall, Zverev’s serve efficiency of 288.6 places him third among active ATP players.
Considering his 294.3 serve rating on hard courts, where he is second in the world, those numbers become even more impressive.
Still, his game is centered on something other than serving in the slightest, even though he could back it up with numbers.
The fact that he averages eight aces a game—a respectable number, but significantly lower than what is common among specialists—demonstrates this.
The diminutive “Sacha” plays the position of baseliner and is known for his excellent mobility and ease throughout lengthy rallies.
So, contrary to what his numbers would indicate, he is not a serve-and-volleyer abuser, entirely in reverse. Here, delivering a crushing serve is just one more tool in a well-rounded armory.
5. Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria)
With 225.3 km/h serve, Grigor Dimitrov was second fastest at Wimbledon 2023 and one of the year’s quickest players overall.
This is less than his all-time best serves speed of 233.4 km/h, which he achieved in a 2013 match at Queen’s.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter because the Bulgarian can easily smash all the speedometers with a shot here or there.
But he needs to be more consistent to do it repeatedly. He proves it by only averaging 7.1 aces a game all season long.
Furthermore, he proved an unreliable server with an average of 3.3 double faults each match.
He ranks fifteenth in that category with a serve efficiency of 279.3. It all started in May 2023 when Andy Murray’s coach openly blasted Dimitrov’s serving method, sparking a scandal.
The Bulgarian is well-known for applying force with his arm rather than his whole body, as in a spring-like motion.
Even when faced with a technical issue, it is possible to have a terrific run, as Grigor has shown.
According to Mark Petchey, he has double faults because he uses improper hand posture for his service.
