Serena Williams Average Serve Speed

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The American tennis star Serena Williams will go down in history as the greatest female tennis player of all time. With 23 Grand Slam titles and 319 weeks at the world No.1 spot, it’s hard to argue against that statement. Apart from being a phenomenal tennis star, Serena is known for her big serve that is a nightmare for all her opponents on the WTA Tour.

We all know that Serena have one of the most fastest serves in the world, but, how fast is she actually serving? That’s what I will go through in this post.

How fast does Serena Williams serve? Serena Williams average serving speed is 106 mph. While that is her average serving speed, Serena’s fastest serve achieved an impressing 128 mph, which she accomplished at the Australian Open 2013.

When Williams beat Garbine Muguruza to win the Championships in 2015, her average first serve clocked in at 113 miles per hour, the third straight match in which her typical first delivery topped 111 mph. Over her last 13 matches, she has averaged only (“only”) 106.4 mph, never exceeding 109 mph in a single contest. How much does it matter? Men's serves must be recorded at or over 230 km/h (143 mph) minimum standard speed. Women's serves must be recorded at or over 200 km/h (124 mph) minimum standard speed. Only one serve per player is recorded here.

Serena’s Serving Speed Differ A Lot

As many other pro players, Serena have several different kind of serves that all have different speed. Her most famous serves are the power serve and the topspin serve. Topspin serves are more accurate and have a higher consistent rate, however, that serve focuses more on spin than speed. So, when Serena serves her topspin serve, it averaging about 91 mph. Which is not even close to what she achieves on her power serve.

Serena Williams’ most famous serve, the so-called power serve. Isn’t as accurate and consistent compared to the topspin serve, but when she hits a perfect power serve, it’s pretty much impossible to return. Serena’s power serve averages an impressing 106 mph. It may be hard to take this number into perspective, but if we take into account what speed the players on the men’s tour are serving, it’s about the same speed as the 100-200 ranked players in the world.

How Fast Is Serena's Serve

Serena is a powerhouse that is hard to compare to any other female tennis player in the world. If we compare her average serving speed of 106 mph to the average WTA player, the differences are quite mind blowing. The average serving speed among WTA players are 83 mph, which is 23 mph less than Serena’s serve speed.

Serena Williams’ Fastest Serve

If you were a tennis fan back in 2013, you probably remember Serena’s famous serve at the Australian Open that got a massive amount of attention from different medias. It was in the 3rd round against the Japanese Aymui Morita that Serena made her record breaking serve at a whopping 128 mph.

Serena’s fastest serve in her career is today, the 5th fastest serve in the history of tennis (among female tennis players). One of the players that are above Serena is actually her older sister Venus Williams. It’s safe to say that there are some good genes going in the Williams family.

Here are all the players that have served faster than Serena Williams 128mph.

Serena's Fastest Serve Speed

If you want to take those numbers into perspective, take a look at our article about how fast the players on the men’s tour are serving.


Playing the Australian Open at age 39, Serena Williams is trying again to lock up one of the last pieces of the puzzle in her magnificent career.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time.The only remaining drawback for Williams is the Grand Slam record of a troubled Margaret Court, who played in an era with weaker competition. With 23 individual Grand Slam titles, Williams needs one more to tie and two to overtake Court on the overall tally. She has been very close, winning many Grand Slam matches, but has suffered a series of late-round setbacks since returning from having a child in 2017.

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So what was it that went wrong in the eight Grand Slam losses since his return? Observers have blamed everything from age to nerves to poor physical condition. But an analysis of the stat sheets for those eight Grand Slam losses reveals a number of fairly obvious differences between what happened in the loss and the way Williams plays normally.

It is not your speed of service. In 2015, when Williams dominated the sport by capturing three of the four Slams, her average first serve speed was 109 mph, identical to what it was in her last Grand Slam loss at the hands of Victoria Azarenka. Williams’ first serves landing percentage has been mixed in these games. She has been at or near the ideal of about 65 percent of first serves landed in half of those eight Grand Slam losses. Their percentages in the remaining half have been either too high or too low, but uneven performance in this area is not enough to signal a trend. In this Grand Slam loss data set, his averages hovered around the 65 percent first serve median, making it unlikely that he was a chronic problem at this point. Additionally, his first serve winning percentage is stable: In his three most recent Grand Slam losses, Williams’ winning percentage on his first serve points was 74 percent, 70 percent, and 72 percent, all. online with the top 10 players in the WTA. Tour in 2020. There has to be something else at stake.

Imagine James Carville sitting in front of a group of tennis experts understanding why Williams has yet to break through. To those experts, you might say, “It’s the comeback, stupid.”

Outside of service-related metrics, a mountain of meaning is built into the statistical category “return points earned” because points played on return make up about half of all points played. Like many statistics in tennis, it is more useful to view this category as a percentage rather than a raw number of points, since tennis matches can vary greatly in the total number of points played.

Williams seems to feel that his problem lies in his return. After losing to traveler Wang Qiang in the third round of the Australian Open last year, she said: “I didn’t come back as Serena. Honestly, if we were to be honest with ourselves, it would all be on my shoulders. I lost that game. … I literally can’t do that again. That is unprofessional. Not well.”

Serena Williams Average Serve Speed

In that three-set match, Williams made 30 errors on his return of serve. She still almost got the game out, losing 7-5 in the third set. Imagine if you had found a way to put only half of those 30 returns into play. And no, ruining a bunch of return winners to make up for all the mistakes didn’t even fix things – he only had seven return winners for those 30 mistakes.

Looking at Serena’s return point percentage earned in her eight Grand Slam losses since her return, the trend is outside of her overall season-spanning benchmarks.

Return points
YearTournamentAdversaryRoundTotal wonShare
2019US OpenAndreescuFinal30/6844.1%
2020US OpenAzarenkaSemifinal32/8239.0
2019australian openPlíškováQuarter finals38/9838.8
2018US OpenOsakaFinal20/5536.4
2019open FrenchKeninThird round28/7835.9
2020australian openWangThird round39/11434.2
2018WimbledonKerberFinal17/5034.0
2019WimbledonHalepFinal12/4626.1

These losses show a trend of return point percentages gained primarily in the 1930s, a departure from their normally solid return game. By comparison, overall in 2020, he earned a much better 44 percent of his payback points, and in Williams’ exceptional year of 2015, his share of return points earned was 48 percent. Looking at your payback point history over the past decade, your success rate in this category may need to be in your 40s for you to win, while your 30s percentages leave you vulnerable.

In 2019, the last full year of professional tennis before the pandemic, the top 60 players on the WTA Tour had return point winning percentages throughout the season in their 40s. Simply put, it is the rank where women reside the most. successful in tennis.

Also consider that there is more to gaining a return point than the return stroke itself.

Historians agree that Williams is one of the greatest returnees of all time. She is a female capable of returning a male player’s 138 mph serve with a blast from a winner. Its return speeds sometimes far exceed the speed of the service it was launched on.

Is Serena not giving enough returns up for grabs, whether it’s getting a hit, missing the hit, or going too far?

The answer is: sometimes.

According to Tennis Abstract, most of the best women in the world put between 75 and 83 percent of their earnings at stake. This means that they are difficult to hit, but they also make very few errors on their return shots.

In the 2018 loss to Angelique Kerber, Williams’s share of returns at stake was an acceptable 71 percent. However, in the final US Open loss to Bianca Andreescu, Williams’ performance at stake dropped to just 63 percent. That was just one two-set match in which Serena made 19 return errors, or nearly two return errors per receiving game.

The return is not the only time a player can lose at a return point, of course. There is at least some indication that Williams could also be struggling with his next hit after a return hit in play. In cases where rally length data is available for these Grand Slam losses, in at least four of them, Williams lost the battle of the short points, which tennis statisticians classify as 0 to 4 shots. In the tournaments that ended with her losses to Wang, Naomi Osaka and Karolína Plíšková, Williams had previously won all of the short point battles that led to her losses. It’s an indication of a quick blackout in the points, at least in the Grand Slam matches he’s losing.

Serena williams serve

What’s potentially most egregious about Williams’ diminished performance in the payback points earned category is the caliber of servers he’s missing. In these eight Grand Slam losses, he faced two elite servers in Osaka and Plíšková. It’s almost forgivable not to turn well against those two. But the rest? You’d think Williams would delight in his services. Andreescu, Azarenka, Kerber, Wang, Simona Halep and Sofia Kenin are nowhere near the 2020 WTA Top 10 in aces or percentage of first serve points.

Serena Williams Average Serve Speed

However, that group of players contains supreme defenders and fast running backs. The only way to find out why Williams is slipping into his return game against these players might be to get inside his head, but the specter of getting into long, extended running points against them may weigh on him, consciously or not.

Although Williams doesn’t need the Grand Slam record to cement her greatness, it would be satisfying for her and her fans if she completed the task. A simple reinforcement of her return game, being careful to put returns in play and looking to extend her receiving points, could help her overcome the last hurdle.

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