John Isner set the record for most tennis aces of all time on July 1, ending his loss to Jannik Sinner with a tally of 13,748 aces in his career.

Isner, who won NCAA singles and doubles titles during his time in Athens, has been ranked in the Association of Tennis Professionals’ top 25 for twelve consecutive years dating back to 2010. He currently holds the ATP’s 22 seed and reached Wimbledon’s third round before falling to Sinner.

This was hardly Isner’s first experience at Wimbledon; in 2018, he reached the Grand Slam Semifinals, and in 2011, he played against Nicholas Mahut in Wimbledon’s longest match in history. The competition lasted 11 hours over three days of play, and Isner ended the proceedings with a decisive backhand. Isner also holds the record for the third-longest match in Wimbledon history, though that one only charted in at six and a half hours.

In his journey to the third round, Isner took down Enzo Couacaud and Andy Murray, the latter of whom is a two-time champion at Wimbledon. Murray’s exit in the second round was his earliest defeat at Wimbledon. Isner broke out to an early advantage, and despite a brief comeback from his opponent, was able to seal the victory and secure his matchup against Sinner.

Isner served 24 aces in his match against Sinner, far from his all-time record of 113 in one match but still 19 more than he needed to break Ivo Karlovic’s record of 13,728. Roger Federer, who holds the third most aces in ATP history, now trails Isner by over 2,000 serves. Sinner would later fall to defending champion Novak Djokovic two rounds later, though his quarterfinals berth marks his longest Wimbledon appearance to date.

Isner was rewarded a total of $147,000, a fraction of the $2.5 million which Djokovic would later claim for winning the entire tournament. Isner, a four-time All-American with the University of Georgia, went from Wimbledon to Newport, Rhode Island to take part in the Infosys Hall of Fame Open.

His Hall of Fame journey ended to Maxime Cressy in the semifinals – a somewhat lackluster outcome for the four-time Newport champion – though Isner seemed to take the loss in stride. Cressy went on to win the tournament, and Isner tweeted out the following, “You make your own luck. Max plays a game that makes opponents extremely uncomfortable. Congrats to him on his first title.”

Printed with permission from the Red & Black independent student media organization based in Athens, Georgia; redandblack.com/sports