What is an ace? Who are the kings and queens of the ace?
In tennis, the term ace is used to refer to any legal serve that is not touched by the receiver and wins the point for the server.
An ace is not notched when a player’s serve is touched but not successfully returned with that, instead falling into a separate category of an unreturnable serve.
American sportswriter Allison Danzig is credited with the invention of the term.
The modern professional game has embraced the term and committed to carefully tracking aces.
Several notable records centre around aces.
The most aces struck in any tournament in the open era is a record that falls to American John Isner who blasted 214 aces in all across his 2018 Wimbledon run.
Isner might just be the king of the ace as he also holds the record for the most aces struck in any match, having served 113 during his 11-hour epic encounter with Nicolas Mahut in 2010.
Isner has also served the most aces on the ATP Tour overall with 14,391 at last count.
Among players currently active, Milos Raonic is now second with 8,270, Marin Cilic is third with 7,985 aces while the return to the tour of Kevin Anderson leaves the South African in fourth.
When it comes to aces, Ivo Karlović has the most in a best-of-three-set match with his 45 in the Halle Open in 2015.
AT Wimbledon in 2015, Karlovic became the only player to hit at least 40 aces in three consecutive matches, a feat that is yet to be repeated.
Croatian serve monster Goran Ivanišević has the most in a single season with the 1,477 he blasted in the 1996 term.
Roger Federer’s 50 aces in the 2009 Wimbledon final, set the record for a Grand Slam final. The introduction of fifth set tiebreakers has cut the number of aces sent down in total at Grand Slam tournaments.
On the WTA Tour side Serena Williams still holds the record for most aces in any tournament with her 102 en route to winning the Wimbledon title in 2012.
Karolína Plíšková has two highest ace totals for a single season with 530 in 2016 and 517 in 2015. Her sister Kristyna currently holds the record for the most aces (31) in a match on the WTA Tour, which she set in a second-round match against Monica Puig at the 2016 Australian Open, curiously she also holds the second highest match total against the same opponent in Luxembourg in 2019.
This season’s ace counters are being led by Elena Rybakina (381) and Hubert Hurkacz (703).
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