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’s 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 has one of the 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 William’s average serving speed is 106 mph. While that is her average serving speed, Serena’s fastest serve achieved an impressive 128 mph, which she accomplished at the Australian Open 2013.
Serena’s Serving Speed Differ A Lot
Like many other pro players, Serena has several different kinds of serves that all have different speeds. 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 averaged 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 impressive 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.
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 is 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 media. It was in the 3rd round against the Japanese Ayumi 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 on in the Williams family.
Here are all the players that have served faster than Serena Williams 128mph.
| Player | Serve Speed | Event |
| Georgina Garcia Pérez | 137 mph / 220 km/h | Hungarian Open 2018 |
| Sabine Lisicki | 131 mph / 211 km/h | Stanford Classic 2014 |
| Venus Williams | 129 mph / 208 km/h | US Open 2007 |
| Ivana Jorović | 129 mph / 207 km/h | Fed Cup 2017 |
| Serena Williams | 128 mph / 206 km/h | Australian Open 2013 |
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.