Behold the attractive and beloved one-handed backhand, however do it rapidly, as a result of time is operating quick 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 way in which of the picket rackets of the early 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 yr, whose one-handed backhand is as clean as they arrive. Eubanks mentioned he was about 13 years previous when he fell onerous for the Federer backhand and determined to modify 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 mentioned 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 sport, 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 speedy 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 previous nonetheless rips his one-hander as onerous and as clear as anybody ever has, and Grigor Dimitrov had 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 mentioned 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 stage, then flies up with a high-stretching end. Somewhere alongside the way in which, it makes straightforward, 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, through 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 closing. Tsitsipas’s backhand is one other of the prettiest, smoothest strokes within the sport.
“My signature shot,” Tsitsipas mentioned 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, consultants say, is usually a operate of the rising function of energy and velocity within the sport. Even clay courts, traditionally the slowest floor, play onerous and quick nowadays. Players, who spend an increasing number of time within the gymnasium, hold getting greater and stronger, and now hit forehands at greater than 100 miles per hour. Rackets and strings enable for a lot topspin that rally balls from even common gamers are bouncing as much as eye stage, making it onerous for even the 6-foot-7 Eubanks to get on high 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 — do away with it. The two-handed backhand is way extra steady, he mentioned, and the movement is shorter and less complicated.
“It’s almost impossible to make it with a one-handed backhand now,” he mentioned. “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 Eighties (thanks, Renee Richards, her coach on the time) is rather less draconian, however not that a lot. Navratilova mentioned 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 mentioned, although she added that making an attempt to make use of it to maintain up with trendy 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 completed for the game, he could also be extra chargeable for the present era of one-handed backhand devotees — and their shortcomings — than anybody.
Why does Denis Shapovalov, the proficient 24-year-old Canadian who missed the U.S. Open with a knee damage, like to hit the one-hander with each ft off the bottom?
Federer.
Eubanks?
Federer.
Tsitsipas?
Federer. And Sampras.
Tsitsipas mentioned he remembers the day when he made the dedication to the one-handed backhand. He was 8 years previous. 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 some great 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 approach, and Sampras, too.
“I’m here to kind of not have it die,” Tsitsipas mentioned 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 mentioned. “It just looked so good.”
He took one hand off the racket at some point at apply and tried not to concentrate to the coaches who may need been him side-eyed, or making feedback to his father, who was his main coach. He informed 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 approach into the highest 100, plus time spent working as an analyst for the Tennis Channel, Eubanks is aware of the shot’s drawbacks, particularly the timing it requires, however he isn’t about to modify. “It’s a little too far gone,” he mentioned. “Can’t quite do that now, not and win.”
Source: www.nytimes.com