Milos Raonic played 110 points on his first serve against Cameron Norrie at Queen’s Club in London on Monday.
Forty-two percent of those points started and ended with serves that Norrie could not get near.
Raonic’s 47 aces broke the ATP Tour record for a three-set match and broke the Briton, too, propelling the Canadian and former Wimbledon finalist to victory, 6-7 (6), 6-3, 7-6 (9). After the match, Raonic said “with the scoreline and having to save match points, I probably needed every single one of those. My serve’s always been the most important shot to me.
“I’m glad that behind that also stands a win because maybe I’d feel differently or maybe a bit more sour if I was to get that many free points and lose the match.”
| Raonic | Tour avg. | Diff. | |
|---|---|---|---|
Aces in three sets on grass | 47 | 7.5 | +526.7% |
First-serve accuracy (cm) | 41 | 58 | +29.3% |
First-serve speed (mph) | 132 | 118 | +11.9% |
First-serve in percentage (%) | 69 | 62 | +11.3% |
Source: Tennis Viz / Tennis Data Innovations
Most remarkable (outside of smashing through the average aces for a three-set-match on grass, which is already the most favourable surface for servers) was Raonic’s placement of those serves. The serve accuracy metric used by Tennis Viz tracks how close to the side or centre service lines each serve bounces, taking body serves — which will land nearer the middle of the service box, laterally speaking — out of the equation. In one game, Raonic hit three serves in succession so tight to the centre service line, or “T,” that Norrie barely saw it worth his while to move.
The perfect game from @mraonic…
Aside from hitting a line umpire and ball kid along the way 🤣
#cinchChampionships pic.twitter.com/NZ2HV5nKXn— cinch Championships (@QueensTennis) June 17, 2024
Norrie said he knew what was coming. He just couldn’t do anything about it.
“I think even before the match I said he’s probably got the best serve I have ever faced,” he said.
“He has all the spots. My coach told me a little bit, maybe try to cover the slice on the second serve, and I think he hit six or seven aces the other way after that. So it’s tough.”
In sending down those 47 aces, Raonic broke a record previously held by Ivo Karlovic, who hit 45 aces (also on grass) against another former Wimbledon finalist, Tomas Berdych, at Halle in Germany in 2015.
| Player | Opponent | Tournament | Year | Aces |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Milos Raonic | Cameron Norrie | Queen's | 2024 | 47 |
Ivo Karlovic | Tomas Berdych | Halle | 2015 | 45 |
John Isner | Wu Yibing | Dallas | 2023 | 44 |
Nick Kyrgios | Ryan Harrison | Brisbane | 2019 | 44 |
Ivo Karlovic | Daniel Brands | Zagreb | 2014 | 44 |
Reilly Opelka | John Isner | New York | 2019 | 43 |
Reilly Opelka | Brayden Schnur | New York | 2019 | 43 |
John Isner | Gilles Muller | Queen's | 2016 | 43 |
Mardy Fish | Olivier Rochus | Lyon | 2007 | 43 |
Source: ATP Tour
Raonic’s serving prowess surprised even an expert in the biomechanical complexity of the motion, which looks so fluid and effortless when done right but is in reality a complex kinetic chain, in which the slightest break is incredibly detrimental. Gavin MacMillan, the serve expert who helped turn Aryna Sabalenka’s serve from a disaster to one of the most dangerous weapons in the game, pored over Raonic’s statistics from the Norrie match with amazement.
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He thought he was reading something wrong when he saw that his fellow Canadian had averaged 132 mph on his first serve and 118 on his second, and that he had lost just 11 points on his first serve the entire match. He always knew Raonic had a potentially lethal serve, but this was next level.
MacMillan said he is not a huge fan of Raonic’s windup, the way he “overcocks his wrists” and gets his arms so far out in front. “It hides the motion and what he does so well, and then people try to teach it,” MacMillan said of the start of the serve.
Everything else, though, is textbook — the way Raonic gets his left arm up and turns his hand and gets that arc running from his front hip to his front shoulder before he snaps his body forward. Being 6-foot-7 helps, too.
“It’s all about the rotational torque,” MacMillan said. “You look at the position of his front shoulder and his arm and his hip and he does it at such a huge size. Watch out.”
That said, all those 47 aces later, Raonic still needed to win a third-set tiebreak and save two match points; that tiebreak went to 11-9. Out of 27 pressure points he faced on serve in the match, Raonic won 11 with aces.
He was just one ace away from winning the equivalent of two consecutive 6-0, or bagel, sets — which would require 48 points won — with aces alone, but he’d ended up scrapping for the win until the end.
“Good for Norrie for hanging in there,” MacMillan said.
— Additional reporting by The Athletic’s Charlie Eccleshare.
(Photo: Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)