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FastestThings

Women's Tennis

Venus Williams

207.6 km/h serve in the second round of the 2007 US Open, against Ashley Harkleroad.

Also known as Venus 129 mph
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Ball speed

Published as 207.6 km/hPublished as 207.6 km/hPublished as 207.6 km/h

Serve radar in a second-round match, Venus Williams against Ashley Harkleroad, 2007 US Open. Guinness prints 129 mph (207.6 km/h). The BBC prints 129 mph. No calendar day is stored.

OfficialGuinness World Records (opens source in a new tab)

In context

  • 2.0× a cheetah's timed top speedSourced · Cheetah, 29 m/s. Sharp 1997, mean of three timed runs over 201.2 m
  • A football field in 1.6 sConstant · American football field, 100 yd (91.44 m)
  • London to New York in 26 h 50 minConstant · London to New York, 5,570 km great-circle

Worked out from the sourced figure above, which stays the ranked number.

This list

Why it's so fast

A WTA main-draw serve is the same throw, timed on the match radar. The list keeps a figure three independent pages print, and it leaves a one-page reading off.

  1. Contact speed

    The ball is fastest as it leaves the strings. What the returner sees is already that reading, not a later guess.

  2. Main draw only

    Qualifying, ITF, and a figure that only one compilation prints are not added. The ranked speed is the one the citations share.

This is how the category works. A note written for this entry appears here once it is in the database.

Provenance

Every measurement

Claimed, measured and official figures side by side, each with its source. The ranked figure is marked.

  1. 207.6km/h129mph57.7m/s112knRanked figure

    Serve radar in a second-round match, Venus Williams against Ashley Harkleroad, 2007 US Open. Guinness prints 129 mph (207.6 km/h). The BBC prints 129 mph. No calendar day is stored.

    Tennis Companion prints 207.6 km/h (129.0 mph) at the 2007 US Open. A second 207.6 km/h on that page alone is not stored, so this row is not a tie.

    Official
    Guinness World Records (opens source in a new tab)

Reference

Specs

Server
Venus Williams
Event
2007 US Open
Speed
207.6 km/h
Opponent
Ashley Harkleroad

Context

Background

Guinness prints a 129 mph (207.6 km/h) serve by Venus Williams in a second-round match against Ashley Harkleroad at the 2007 US Open, and calls it the previous fastest serve by a woman on the WTA tour. The BBC prints her previous record as 129 mph at the 2007 US Open. Tennis Companion prints 207.6 km/h (129.0 mph) at the 2007 US Open.

The ranked figure is 207.6 km/h. 129 mph is that figure. No calendar day is stored. Tennis Companion also lists Alycia Parks at 207.6 km/h, on that page alone, so Parks is not a second row and this serve is not labeled tied.

Spot a wrong number?

Every report is read by a person, and corrections are dated on the page.