Who has the fastest serve in tennis history (officially n internationally)?

Question

Who has the fastest serve in tennis history (officially n internationally)?

Answer 1

In 2004, Roddick produced the fastest serve in professional tennis: 249.4 km/h (155 mph) during a Davis Cup semi-final match with Vladimir Voltchkov on hard court in Charleston. Earlier that year, Roddick had the fastest serve in U.S. Open history: 244 km/h (152 mph) against American Scoville Jenkins

Hmmm...they should have tested him for steroids right after both events.

Answerer 1, Parth, is incorrect. Also a foot note needs to be added to his answer for Greg Rusedski. Greg is a Canadian who became a turncoat and went to England in 1995 to play tennis just like Mary Pierce, who was also born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada to an American dad and French mom while on vacation did leaving the USA for France. Something about people born in Montreal they don't seem to have any country loyalty. Maybe it's just a Quebec thing since it is the most messed up Province in the Country.

So a Canadian born and raised male has the 3rd fastest serve in history and is the 2nd fastest server. Nice!

Answer 2

Parth has a very detailed answer here... that Roddick set the record for the fastest serve in tennis history... but what fascinates me is his answer when he was asked what's the secret of his arm for his record breaking serve... and he said, ...he doesn't know, except that he is sure that his arm is still connected to his body...

Answer 3

Andy Roddick of the USA with a service speed of 155 Mile Per Hour. He did it at the Davis Cup, I forget what year.

Answer 4

Andy Roddick, he served it at 155 mph 249km/h

Answer 5

andy roddick, 150 miles/hour, in a davis cup match.-

Answer 6

Great question!

There have been some BIG servers in the sport and Roddick tops them all with several over 150 mph.

Check out Popular Mechanics mag, they did a study of Roddick's serve. Its pretty informative.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors...

There's a great pic too.

Here's what they say....

No. 5 ranked Andy Roddick has the world’s fastest tennis serve—his 155-mph scorcher in 2004 set the record—but he doesn’t like to talk about it. When he first met Patrick McEnroe, his Davis Cup coach, he said: “Whatever you do, don’t say anything to me about my serve. If I think about it, I’m in trouble.” Here PM analyzes what the 24-year-old player won’t: What happens in the two-thirds of a second between toss and ace.

The Windup

As the toss goes up, players press their feet against the court, using ground reaction forces to build up elastic potential energy—rotations of the legs, hips, trunk and shoulders that produce maximum angular momentum. Exploding upward toward the ball, pro players employ extraordinary timing to efficiently transfer forces from the legs, through the body segments, to the striking hand in what biomechanists call “the kinetic chain principle.” Bruce Elliott, a professor at the University of Western Australia, has extrapolated the contributions of the body segments to racket-head speed (shown here) using 3D videography and computer analysis. “These contributions vary from person to person,” Elliott says, “but the data shows the clear importance of the trunk, shoulder internal rotation and wrist flexion in the swing to impact.”

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There are some people that say Big Bill Tilden hit one at 163 in 1931 but who knows how things were tested or evaluated back then. Plus.....I doubt if it is really even possible to hit that speed with the old wood rackets.

But...one magazine had Mark Phillapousis, back when he was a legitemate threat, serve with his own current rac`ket, a metal racket, and then an old wooden one and he hit within 10mph no matter which racket. Interesting.

Source(s):

http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors...

Answer 7

Andy Roddick 155mph Davis Cup Match

Answer 8

Click on the first link below and you will fine the fastest serves in tennis ever recorded.

I also did some additional research and I found this:

'Big Bill' Tilden delivered the fastest serve ever officially measured. It was timed at 163.6 mph in 1931. Britain's Mike Sangster had a serve timed at 154 mph in 1963. Ellsworth Vines was clocked at 128 mph and his 1930s contemporary Lester Rollo Stoeten sent down a serve timed at 131 mph. The fastest serve scientifically timed was the 137 mph 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 during a test in Weinheim."

There are 3 person who broke the 150+ mph barrier:

Roddick, with 155 mph

Guccione, with 154 mph

Dent, with 153 mph.

Add that, only 3 other people had claimed a serve over 145 mph:

Rusedski, with 149 mph

Karlovic, with 145.60 mph

Ljubicic, with 145 mph

Safin, Gonzalez, and Joachim Johansson are 3 in the 144 mph mark.

On the link it says that Venus fastest serve was recorded at 127mph back in 1998. However I remember in her second round match at last years French Open she served at 129mph.

Anyway the second link records Brenda Schultz-McCarthy as owing the fastest ever recorded serve in the womens game.

Answer 9

Andy Roddick (man) and Venus Williams (woman).

Answer 10

andy roddick - 155 mph i think

Answer 11

UNCIVILLY, Conn. (AP) — Andy Roddick set the record for fastest serve in a match by whipping one 150 mph(242 kmph) Friday night in Davis Cup play.



  Andy Roddick matched his own new record with his serve against Stefan Koubek.  

By John Spivey, AP

The American did it in the eighth game of a 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Stefan Koubek of Austria. Koubek actually got his racket on the record-setting serve, but he couldn't put the ball over the net.

   Fastest serves  



The fastest recorded serves in tennis history:

Andy Roddick, U.S., 150 mph, 2004 Davis Cup

Andy Roddick, U.S., 149 mph, 2003 Queen's Club

Greg Rusedski, Britain, 149 mph, 1998 Indian Wells

Taylor Dent, U.S., 144 mph, 2001 Wimbledon

Mark Philippoussis, Australia, 142.3 mph, 1997 Dusseldorf

Gilles Elseneer, Belgium, 140 mph, 2003 Basel

Julian Alonso, Spain, 140 mph, 1997 Long Island













Earlier, Roddick's second serve of the match also registered 150 mph on the courtside speed meter, but the ball landed out for a fault — which doesn't count as a record.

The U.S. Open champion broke the record of 149 mph that he shared with Greg Rusedski. Roddick hit a serve at that speed during a victory over Andre Agassi at the Queen's Club tournament in June. Rusedski set that standard in 1998.