Expect plenty of potent serving Tuesday in each of the two men’s quarterfinal matches. Alexander Zverev (who plays in the afternoon against Borna Coric) and Denis Shapovalov (who takes on Pablo Carreno Busta in the evening session) are both on target to finish the 2020 US Open in the top two spots in the ace race. Zverev is the tournament leader with 74 aces, while Shapovalov will surely move into second place tonight, needing to hit only three aces to match the now-eliminated Vasek Pospisil’s total of 71.
Serving big at the US Open hasn’t translated into a title run in more than a decade, however. The last ace leader to win the men’s championship was Roger Federer in 2007. Since serving records started being kept in 1991, only three other men have served the most aces in the tournament while capturing the crown: Marat Safin (2000), Andy Roddick (2003) and Pete Sampras, who did it three times (1993, 1995, 2002). Sampras, a four-time tournament aces leader, holds the all-time record for most aces during the US Open, with 144 in 2002. He also has the mark for the second-highest total, 141, in 1995.
READ MORE: Ace leaders at the 2020 US Open
It’s a similar story on the women’s side. Only three players have hit the most aces en route to the title—two of them Russians: Svetlana Kuznetsova (2004) and Maria Sharapova (2006). The other woman, of course, is Serena Williams, who did so while winning each of her six US Open titles (1999, 2002, 2008, 2012-14) and has the opportunity to do it again at the 2020 US Open. The tournament ace leader 14 times, she sits atop the list again this year, with 44 aces through her first four matches. That is four more aces than she hit in seven matches during last year’s tournament, when she was the leader. Her record high at the US Open is 70 aces, which she served in 1999.
