The One-Handed Backhand Is on the Way to Extinction

Behold the attractive and beloved one-handed backhand, however do it rapidly, as a result of time is working brief for tennis’s lustiest shot.

Yes, the shot that made Roger Federer well-known, the signature stroke of Rod Laver, a favourite of John McEnroe, and Pete Sampras and Martina Navratilova is quick going the best way of the picket rackets of the early Nineteen Eighties, a relic that generates pleasure and nostalgia when a tennis aesthete lays eyes upon it, however one whose days could also be numbered.

Even those that play with a one-hander have their regrets. Just ask Chris Eubanks, the late-blooming breakout star of American tennis this 12 months, whose one-handed backhand is as clean as they arrive. Eubanks stated he was about 13 years outdated when he fell onerous for the Federer backhand and determined to change from the two-hander he had performed with since he first picked up a tennis racket.

“If I knew what I know now, I probably wouldn’t have,” Eubanks stated as he sat within the lounge of his Midtown Manhattan lodge within the days main as much as the U.S. Open.

Not so way back, the highest ranks of the game, particularly the boys’s recreation, had no scarcity of one-handed backhands. In addition to Federer, Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem received Grand Slam titles with the shot. Among the highest 10 males now, solely Stefanos Tsitsipas performs with a one-handed backhand. Tatiana Maria, No. 47 on the planet, is the highest-ranked girl to rely totally on her one-hander.

In extra fast phrases, it has been a principally horrible first week for one-handed backhands within the singles competitions on the U.S. Open. As the second spherical wound down on Thursday afternoon, Wawrinka, who at 38 years outdated nonetheless rips his one-hander as onerous and as clear as anybody ever has, and Grigor Dimitrov have been the one one-handed backhand standard-bearers.

“I’m not hitting as well as when I was winning Grand Slams, that’s for sure,” Wawrinka stated after beating Tomas Etcheverry of Argentina on Thursday in 4 units regardless of uncharacteristically hitting a handful of wayward backhands. But Tsitsipas, Thiem, Eubanks and Maria all misplaced within the first days of the event.

So did Lorenzo Musetti, the rising Italian whose silky one-handed backhand could make tennis cognoscenti drool. His stroke begins low, sweeps up and ahead virtually from knee degree, then flies up with a high-stretching end. Somewhere alongside the best way, it makes simple, pure contact, and that fuzzy yellow ball flies off his racket. Musetti, 21, is meant to be a rival for Carlos Alcaraz, the 20-year-old world No. 1, in the course of the subsequent decade. Musetti is ranked 18th, however he has but to make a Grand Slam quarterfinal.

In January, Tsitsipas confronted Novak Djokovic within the Australian Open last. Tsitsipas’s backhand is one other of the prettiest, smoothest strokes within the sport.

“My signature shot,” Tsitsipas stated earlier this week. “It kind of defines me.”

Yet it took about three video games to determine Djokovic’s technique that night — pound ball after ball deep onto the Tsitsipas backhand. Djokovic received in straight units.

And therein lies the nice contradiction of the one-handed backhand. How can one thing so lovely to look at, a stroke that’s so etched into tennis historical past, be so exploitable, and why have a dwindling handful of gamers remained so loyal to it?

The reply to the primary query, specialists say, is generally a operate of the rising position of energy and velocity within the sport. Even clay courts, traditionally the slowest floor, play onerous and quick lately. Players, who spend an increasing number of time within the health club, hold getting greater and stronger, and now hit forehands at greater than 100 miles per hour. Rackets and strings permit for a lot topspin that rally balls from even common gamers are bouncing as much as eye degree, making it onerous for even the 6-foot-7 Eubanks to get on prime of the ball on some backhands.

David Nainkin, who leads participant growth for males for the United States Tennis Association, has recommendation for any younger expertise he sees wielding a one-handed backhand — eliminate it. The two-handed backhand is much extra steady, he stated, and the movement is shorter and easier.

“It’s almost impossible to make it with a one-handed backhand now,” he stated. “I think you’ll see less of it maybe in the next 10 years.”

Navratilova, who credit her mastery of a one-handed topspin backhand for her rise to close invincibility within the early Nineteen Eighties (thanks, Renee Richards, her coach on the time) is rather less draconian, however not that a lot. Navratilova stated she would encourage younger gamers to maintain two fingers on the racket — more often than not.

“Work on the one-handed slice and volley,” she stated, although she added that making an attempt to make use of it to maintain up with fashionable tempo and spin probably wouldn’t work.

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Given all that, tips on how to clarify the continuing devotion to the one-hander amongst a dwindling few?

In a phrase, Federer.

As a lot because the Swiss grasp has achieved for the game, he could also be extra chargeable for the present technology of one-handed backhand devotees — and their shortcomings — than anybody.

Why does Denis Shapovalov, the gifted 24-year-old Canadian who missed the U.S. Open with a knee harm, like to hit the one-hander with each ft off the bottom?

Federer.

Eubanks?

Federer.

Tsitsipas?

Federer. And Sampras.

Tsitsipas stated he remembers the day when he made the dedication to the one-handed backhand. He was 8 years outdated. The earlier day, he had performed a two-hander, and his coach had made enjoyable of him for going forwards and backwards, asking Tsitsipas if he was going to commit. That day, Tsitsipas did.

Tsitsipas is aware of the benefits of the two-handed backhand. Safer shot, simpler to manage. But he isn’t about to stop the one-hander. He desires to be like Federer, in each means, and Sampras, too.

“I’m here to kind of not have it die,” Tsitsipas stated of the shot. “It kind of sits in my heart deeply because I really want to be like them.”

Eubanks, too discovered it irresistible, and nonetheless does. “I just love it,” he stated. “It just looked so good.”

He took one hand off the racket someday at observe and tried not to concentrate to the coaches who might need been taking a look at him side-eyed, or making feedback to his father, who was his major coach. He instructed himself this shot was going to work for him, and he was cussed about ensuring it did.

With the knowledge of age and a half-dozen years climbing his means into the highest 100, plus time spent working as an analyst for the Tennis Channel, Eubanks is conversant in the shot’s drawbacks, particularly the timing it requires, however he isn’t about to change. “It’s a little too far gone,” he stated. “Can’t quite do that now, not and win.”