Who has the best serve?

[Tennisfan339]

Among the current tennis players, who has the best serve in your opinion? Not necesseraly the fastest one, but the most effective one (based on all the criteria you want)
If you were a pro tennis player and one of these men could lend his serve to you, who would it be?
(If you choose "another player" or "a retired player" please specify.)

 

[Jonesy]

Isner of Wimbledon.

 

[BeatlesFan]

Pete.

Far and away the greatest serve in tennis history.

 

[Mediterranean Might]

Sampras is the best server / height ratio far and away with Federer and Johnny Mac at close seconds if we were to look at it that way. Overall without adjusting for height, Sampras still probably has the best 2nd in the game, but first serve has to go to one of the human palm trees. Maybe Karlovic in that case?

 

[lud]

1st serve - Karlovic
2nd serve - Sampras

 

[OldschoolKIaus]

Gilles Simon.

 

[Spencer Gore]

Roscoe Tanner

 

[Deleted member 769694]

Dr Ivo's serve is next dimension, he controls everything when right. Dude is 40

 

[skaj]

1st serve + 2nd serve = Sampras

 

[skaj]

Pete.

Far and away the greatest serve in tennis history.

And the most beautiful one.

 

[I Am Finnish]

Isner

 

[robow7]

Isner, who else has gone so far with so little else ?

 

[BeatlesFan]

Isner

Federer played against both Sampras and Isner and when asked who had the greater serve, he just laughed. "Isner for velocity, but Pete's for everything else, TBH." He said that in 2014. And Pete's second serve blows doors off anything isner is capable of in placement, disguise and points won.

 

[The Green Mile]

Federer played against both Sampras and Isner and when asked who had the greater serve, he just laughed. "Isner for velocity, but Pete's for everything else, TBH." He said that in 2014. And Pete's second serve blows doors off anything isner is capable of in placement, disguise and points won.

I call bs, source or stop making crap up.

 

[MeatTornado]

delete

 

[King No1e]

Karlovic 1st serve
Pistol 2nd serve

I'd go with Karlovic by the slimmest of margins because Pete had the confidence of an excellent rest of his game to back it up, while Karlovic is almost a club player without his serve.

A-Rod for best technique, Fed for best kick serve, Sampras for best slice serve.

 

[MeatTornado]

And Pete's second serve blows doors off anything isner is capable of in placement, disguise and points won.

2nd serve points won

Isner: 56.1%
Sampras: 52.6%

 

[robow7]

Fed for best kick serve,

You must have never seen Edberg's kicker and that was before poly.

 

[nolefam_2024]

Isner.

 

[King No1e]

Pete's technique was the best for forward movement.
Roger's best for serving and staying back.

 

[Third Serve]

Has to be Karlovic (or Isner) by a country mile. If anyone tells you anything else, they're biased.

No way is anyone getting close to these 7ft giants. Now if we're talking about serve technique, you'd be in for a more interesting discussion.

 

[megamind]

Dr. Ivo because of his height

Raonic excluding height (of the currently active players)

 

[AnOctorokForDinner]

Now if we're talking about serve technique, you'd be in for a more interesting discussion.

Sampras as obviously as the sky is blue.

 

[Third Serve]

To answer which serve I'd like to have (given my height, which is fairly short), I would go with somebody like Roddick or Sampras. If I would plan on playing for a long time, I would sub Federer for Roddick because Roddick's serve gave him some shoulder issues later in his career. Fed hasn't had such problems (aside from the occasional Federer-esque back injury).

 

[Mr.Lob]

J.Isner

 

[H22 fan]

Pistol Pete

 

[Breakpointerer]

Schwartzman

 

[Tshooter]

I call bs, source or stop making crap up.

Yeh, I agree and the quote makes no sense. Referencing Isner solely for velocity.

 

[MichaelNadal]

Schwartzman

Baego

 

[Druss]

Currently IMO, it is Kyrgios who has the best serve.
With regards to former players, that mantle goes to 'boring' Pistol Pete.

 

[OldschoolKIaus]

Watch:

Watch and listen:

Even Connors would lose in 4 to this guy.

 

[Tshooter]

Currently IMO, it is Kyrgios who has the best serve...

You have to be into it more then every couple of matches or so against a select few (one ?) opponents for it to be considered for the prize.

 

[Tennisfan339]

Thank you all for your answers

My vote went to Isner, so I'm kind of surprised Karlovic won.
Karlovic, Raonic have inferior 2nd serves compared to Isner IMO. Isner's average speed and % on 2nd serves is also higher.

 

[Third Serve]

I call bs, source or stop making crap up.

Still waiting for it...

 

[sredna42]

Pete.

Far and away the greatest serve in tennis history.

Its got me stuffed how he and fed serve so fluidly from platform stance. I feel like I'm blocked off with it. Its sorcery.

 

[sredna42]

Roscoe Tanner

Beat me to it. He had a brutal serve that looked effortless.
Sam Groth's serve was huge as well.