- Who
- Georgina García Pérez
- What
- 220 kilometre(s) per hour
- Where
- Hungary (Budapest)
- When
Georgina García Pérez (Spain) fired down a serve at 220 km/h (136.7 mph) in the final round of qualifying for the 2018 Hungarian Ladies Open in Budapest on 19 February 2018. Owing to the tournament not using SMT/IDS technology, which records service speeds for main-draw matches on the WTA and ATP tennis tours, Sabine Lisicki’s 210.8-km/h (131-mph) serve at the Bank of the West Classic tournament at Stanford University in California, USA, on 29 July 2014 is still officially regarded by the WTA as the fastest-ever serve by a professional female player.
García Pérez beat Naomi Broady and Patty Schnyder (against whom she recorded her 220-km/h serve on Budapest’s Kormoczy Court) in qualifying but was knocked out in the first round of the singles by seventh seed Aleksandra Krunić. However, she won the doubles competition in Budapest with Hungary’s Fanny Stollár, defeating Kirsten Flipkens and Johanna Larsson in the final. It was the first WTA title for both women.
García Pérez (b. 13 May 1992) was 25 at the time of the 2018 Budapest Ladies Open. The Barcelona-born right-hander is one of the tallest women on the women’s tour, standing at 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m). As of 1 February 2021, she was ranked 191 in singles, with a career high of 124 on 5 November 2018. Her doubles ranking was 82, with a career high of 71 on 3 February 2020.
SMT/IDA stands for SportsMEDIA Technology/Information and Display Systems. The US-based media company SMT acquired IDS in 2012 and inked a deal with the ATP and WTA to supply the now-commonplace speed-gun technology at tennis’ most prestigious events.
