Venus Williams hit the fastest recorded serve in a women’s tour main-draw match, reaching 128 mph at the French Open on Wednesday. Brenda Schultz-McCarthy hit a serve at 130 mph during qualifying for the Cincinnati tournament last year, and the WTA said Wednesday it considers that to be the fastest serve in women’s tennis history.

The next Australian Open will be played on a new surface. Organizers of the 2008 event, the year’s first tennis major, have started replacing the cushioned acrylic court at Melbourne Park with more modern technology. The new surface will have a different cushioning system from the Rebound Ace product that was used, tournament director Craig Tiley said Wednesday.

For the first time in at least 30 years, zero U.S. men will play in the second round at the French Open. All nine American men entered in the clay-court Grand Slam lost their opening matches, capped by Robby Ginepri’s five-set loss to Diego Hartfield of Argentina on Wednesday in a match suspended the night before because of darkness.