Wimbledon 2018: How a faulty speed gun robbed Gael Monfils of a slice of tournament history

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World No. 44 Gaël Monfils thought he had made Wimbledon history on the opening day of play at the 2018 Championships — only for his supposed fastest ever serve to be scrubbed out the record books after just half-an-hour.

Monfils defeated his compatriot — and former Wimbledon semi-finalist — Richard Gasquet 7-6 (6) 7-5 6-4 in the first round of the men’s singles, and briefly thought he had made history in the opening set.

The 31-year-old sent down an ace that drew gasps when a digital board at courtside indicated he had produced the fastest serve ever seen at the Championships.

It came when Monfils served at 40-0 in the ninth game of the match on Court Two. Gasquet had no answer to the powerful serve out wide.

The tournament record of 148mph was set by American Taylor Dent in 2010, and Monfils does not typically serve at such a pace.

That meant suspicions were immediately aroused about the veracity of the given speed, and a tournament official later confirmed that the measurement technology had served up a fault.

Rather than establish a new record, it was reassessed as having been a 135mph serve, the official said, a situation that a disappointed Monfils later described as “strange”.

“It was strange, actually,” Monfils said in the press room afterwards. “But anyway. I'm happy the way I am. Still my record is 142, so it's very cool.

“It would have been nice, yeah. But 150 is super fast.”