Taylor Fritz won the Delray Beach Open, ahead of Stefanos Tsitsipas and remains in the top 10 of the ATP rankings.
Tsitsipas, a one-handed backhand player, has been among the top 10 players on tour for the past five years, but is now 11th while Alex de Minaur moved into the top 10 after beating Andrey Rublev in Rotterdam. Grigor Dimitrov, who also has a one-handed backhand, also had a chance to make the top 10, but lost to De Minaur in the semi-final in Rotterdam.
So, after Dimitrov’s defeat to De Minaur, for the first time in the history of the ATP tour, there was not a single player with a one-handed backhand in the top 10.
One-handed backhand was the norm
In the past, one-handed backhand players were common, while two-handed backhand players were rare. In this regard, Bjorn Borg and Jimmy Connors were the first to achieve great success using the two-handed backhand in the 1970s and 1980s.
Traditionally, players with stronger serves and forehands generally did not opt for two-handed backhand shots. John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg and Roger Federer have chosen the one-handed backhand.
Both Borg and Connors were better defenders than they served playing on the back line. Therefore, they preferred to hit stronger backhands using a two-handed strike. Next came Andre Agassi, who had one of the best two-handed backhands on the ATP Tour.
However, the real evolution of the two-handed backhand began in the first decade of this century. Players such as Marat Safin, David Nalbandian, Nikolay Davydenko and Andy Murray have performed very effective two-handed backhands. They were then overshadowed by Novak Djokovic.
New era
Djokovic’s enormous success on the ATP Tour, in which his two-handed backhand played a major role, must have inspired many young tennis players around the world to start using the two-handed backhand. We now have players like Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Jannik Sinner, Holger Rune and Alexander Zverev who use a two-handed backhand.
We have entered an era of tennis where the one-handed backhand is considered a weakness of the game.
Rafael Nadal adapted well to Roger Federer’s one-handed backhand in the mid-to-late 2000s, performing well in head-to-head matches against him.
Federer struggled to deal with Nadal’s punch, especially on clay. There were powerful one-handed backhands from tennis players such as Gustavo Kuerten, Richard Gasquet, Dominic Thiem and Stan Wawrinka, but there were few such players.
Nowadays, most young players immediately start hitting the backhand with both hands.
Whenever tennis players face players like Tsitsipas or Dimitrov, they invariably charge their backhands to gain an advantage. It can be argued that Tsitsipas’ weaker backhand is one of the reasons why he never managed to win a Grand Slam. The setback is its weak link.
This was also true for Federer, but other aspects of his game were so good that he still managed to win 20 Grand Slam titles. Federer also made some changes to his backhand during the latter stages of his career.
And based on current trends, it’s unlikely we’ll see many players on the ATP Tour with a one-handed backhand. And it is unlikely that any of them can win a Grand Slam tournament.
Source: Sport
I’m Rose Brown , a journalist and writer with over 10 years of experience in the news industry. I specialize in covering tennis-related news for Athletistic, a leading sports media website. My writing is highly regarded for its quick turnaround and accuracy, as well as my ability to tell compelling stories about the sport.
