Fastest recorded tennis serves

This article lists the fastest record serve speeds for men's and women's professional tennis.

The fastest recorded serve is by Sam Groth, at 263.4 km/h (163.7 mph) at a Challenger event. The fastest recorded serve at an ATP event was by John Isner, at 253.0 km/h (157.0 mph) in the first round of the 2016 Davis Cup.

This list is not historically complete. For instance, not listed here, Roscoe Tanner's serve was recorded at 246.2 km/h(153 mph) at Palm Springs in 1978 during the final against Raúl Ramírez. There are also reports that Bill Tilden had a serve that was clocked at 262.81 km/h (163.3 mph) but there is nothing to verify that. Big Bill Tilden also delivered another serve claimed to be officially measured at 163.61 mph (73.14 m/s / 263.30 km/h) in 1931. Britain's Mike Sangster had a serve timed at 154 mph (247.84 km/h) in 1963. Ellsworth Vines was clocked at 128 mph (206 km/h) and his 1930s contemporary Lester Rollo Stoeten sent down a serve timed at 131 mph (210.82 km/h). The fastest serve claimed to be scientifically timed was the 137 mph (220.48 km/h) cannonball from American Scott Carnahan at Los Angeles in 1976. Then in 1981 a West German lawn tennis coach and statistician, Horst Goepper, claimed a serving speed of 199.53 mph (321.11 km/h) during a test in Weinheim. Also, Ellsworth Vines in the Wimbledon finals of 1932 clocked 194.73 km/h (121 mph) (without Radar). Udayachand Shetty's winning serve was clocked by radar at 193.12 km/h (120 mph) using a wooden racquet, at the Gilbey Gins fast serve contest held in Chicago on 24 July 1976. This qualified him to take part in the finals at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills Queens on 20 August 1976. Colin Dibley of Australia won the event with a serve of 209.21 km/h (130 mph).

Milos Raonic with a 235 km/h (146.0 mph) second serve in the second round of the 2017 Australian Open in Melbourne and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard with a 235 km/h (146.0 mph) second serve in the first round of the 2024 BOSS Open in Stuttgart, hold the record for the fastest second serve ever recorded.

Criteria to be listed in this article
  • Men's serves must be recorded at or over 230 km/h (142.9 mph) minimum standard speed.
  • Women's serves must be recorded at or over 200 km/h (124.3 mph) minimum standard speed.
  • Only one serve per player is recorded here. For example, Andy Roddick has several 225.3 km/h (140 mph) or faster serves on his record but only his personal best of 249 km/h (155 mph) is included.
  • In cases where more than one serve has been recorded at the same speed, the oldest recorded serve is listed first.