The serve has always been an important component of tennis. I can clearly remember dozens of matches where my serve bailed me out, saving me from countless break points and even set points. Too bad my serve wasn’t good enough to win any set points. Anyways, it’s only fitting for players with bigger serves to survive on the tour longer, and in turn, make more money because while fitness leaves as the body grows old, the serve will always remain and even develop as a player ages. So today, I am going to determine for you guys who the greatest server of all time is.

Pete Sampras

Sampras was widely considered the greatest server of all time before the current era. His fluid service motion translated to thousands of aces, and his 7 Wimbledons are a good indicator of that. In addition, his monstrous second serve was key in allowing him to win many free points, and to get him out of tight situations. He may not have more than 10,000 aces, but his serve coupled with his incredible net game and solid ground game helped him dominate the fast courts of the 90s. I consider the 90s to be one of the toughest eras in tennis history, mainly due to the depth of the tour at the time, and the sheer number of surface specialists. Sampras’s strokes were admittedly not the prettiest, like his tipping, but he more than made up for them with his serve.

Goran Ivanisevic

Ivanisevic in the 90s was known as an incredible server and player in general, making 4 Wimbledon finals in his career. Wimbledon in the 90s was extremely fast and dominated by the big-serving Sampras and other players with huge serves and a finesse driven ground game, all things Ivanisevic excelled at. Goran is one of four players to hit 10,000 aces in his career, and his dominance on grass, the surface that requires a great serve and volley combination. Ivanisevic was a lefty, resulting in an incredibly effective slice serve out wide to the backhand, and slice serves in general that would cut into the body. His serving style was quite unorthodox and frankly ugly, but it hid the serve well. Also, the dude looked like Jesus.

John Isner

Isner is another player with 10,000 aces, achieving this in only 10 years on the ATP tour. Standing at 6 foot 10 inches tall, Isner is a giant by many metrics, and he uses this height to his advantage, hitting his serves at a downward angle. The American has reached a career-high ranking of 9 in the world recently. Isner’s best surface is, believe it or not, clay because of the power game he plays from the baseline, and because of the fact that his height responds to the height of ball bounces on clay better than on other surfaces, specifically grass which one would expect him to dominate. Isner follows his serve with a solid forehand, but his backhand is quite nonexistent, and his height restricts his success on low bouncing surfaces like grass and indoor hard. However, his serve on hard courts is still impossible to read, and even harder to return. If only the poor guy had a backhand…

Ivo Karlovic

When Ivo was a child, he was only able to practice alone, and thus practiced his serve for hours and hours on end. With his 6 foot 11 frame, Karlovic soon developed an incredible serve, one that was both flat and hard to return. This lack of training, however, impacted his backhand, leading Ivo to slice his backhand all the time, because his one hander was inadequate at the pro level. This slice backhand is extremely effective on grass and indoor hard courts, but becomes a liability on clay and slower courts, as does his awful movement and his high-risk forehand. Karlovic prefers his flat serve down the tee, but uses his slice out wide as well to throw his opponents off. They call him doctor Ivo for a reason. I mean, have you seen his match against Djokovic in Doha in 2015. The dude annoyed Djoker so much he forced him to serve and volley, and we all know Djokovic can’t hit a volley for his life. What a legend.

Using the data I have meticulously gathered, I can conclude that the greatest server of all time is definitely Ivo Karlovic. With over 12,000 aces, he leads that category, and Ivo has managed to have a long and successful career without ever having a decent backhand, nor a consistent forehand. Of course, you would think that Bernard Tomic would be on this list, but his serve is a weak point, I will admit, so you’ll have to wait for another post if you want to see the GOAT analyzed.