Loved reading, as always, and never ceases to wow me how effortlessly Carlos glides up the court to storm his opponent with such ease. Think he only sometimes fires long up the line on his FH if the ball in is low and short enough, but on clay, Cam's BH sits up too nicely for that.
As a defence of Cam's FH aggression, he's actually changed and improved his swing pattern and parts of his footwork to create a better working, attacking mechanism that allows him to hit better inside-in shots (great/important for improved ad court dominance on HCs, as seen at United Cup) and down the line on clay to stretch opposition (last year during his Lyon title run, he was floating up those changes of direction and teeing opponents up for counterpunches in behind).
I think he actually executed that aggression really well early on but Carlos' serve shut him out and eventually knocked his confidence. His footing deep into the corners on clay is a weak point, so, even as a leftie, he's rarely properly settled to handle the ad kicker; his BH can't absorb pace or carry any weight against deuce 1st serves, so s+v's & +1s are easy to win with, and the compensating he does for that side on clay by stepping up was shut down by the far more extreme kick to the body he was facing on the day.
Agreed. Early on Cam had 4 forehand winners to Carlos' 2. Norrie just doesn't quite have enough weapons to push higher in the rankings but I love his mentality and approach to the game.
I'm biased here but I do think, even with the level of talent around him, his FH progression is something to be watchful of, just a shame the Gasquet final loss rocked him out of a potentially great AO run. Last year was the inside-out/dtl shot becoming a reliable weapon; this year is already showing that he can hunt the ad court unlike before and can actually absorb pressure close to the baseline with the FH – two things that were crucial to his 2 t10 wins so far which were otherwise absent last year. Hopefully he's in better shape to apply this during the upcoming slow HC swing.
Thanks for that piece Hugh, always a pleasure reading you say positive things about Carlos' groundstrokes. One question that crossed my mind. You seem pretty bullish on Taylor Fritz's backhand (I saw a post on tennis warehouse where you put his and nole's aside) but, since you haven't made a dedicated piece to him (either that or I missed it) I would like to ask you quickly what you think his ceiling is? What are his weaknesses ? Because to me, he is in a category where I just can't see him dominate the game like Carlos, Jannik or Rune.
Fritz has a great backhand. To me his biggest weakness is clearly his movement; he's just way too slow and heavy-footed to dominate the game. His fundamentals off the ground are good and his serve is good also, but he's just a poor mover for top-10 standards. On top of that, he doesn't really have much variation in his game; he can't slice or mix up height that well (Sinner is in that category a little bit) and that also hurts his chances.
Great piece yet again (I have been reading your substacks anonymously with no account for the past year) however I must ask obviously you made a piece on the 2-handed backhand a while ago with Djokovic being the main reference point and what goes into a champion level 2-hander but could you do one analysing the 1-handed backhand now if you have the time?.
I'm especially curious about Wawrinka's backhand more than anyone else's 1-hander simply because unlike the 99% that have their 1-handers to glue their game together Stanislas (Gasquet too although he's less "gutsy" compared to Stan) seems to be the only person than can willingly crunch that shot heavy with more often than not higher pace than majority of the players' forehands and he can do so without warning. Also why is it even though he is not on the tall side of the ATP tour (standing at 6 foot) Nadal's aggressive high kicking topspin doesn't affect Wawrinka's backhand like he could bully Federer's? I find that weird considering his height would require less height of the ball bounce to be out of his strike zone compared to how much bounce needed to escape a taller players strike zone wielding a 1-hander (For example Tsitsipas, Dimitrov or Eubanks) yet Wawrinka plows through the ball harder than the 3 mentioned even though theoretically the ball should be hit at an uncomfortable height for Stan and out of his strike zone robbing him of pace???.
Maybe your expertise on the 2-handed backhand could be used as a comparison against the 1-handed backhand would make for an interesting article with Nole and Stan having faced each other numerous times and maybe bring up questions like "Is there really a superior stroke between the two backhands?", "Which backhand has a higher ceiling?" and "Nole 2-hander vs Stan 1-hander, which is the better stroke?". Would like to see the "Local v Global Technical Maximums" for the 1-handers obviously with Wawrinka being the reference point (I am not a fan Federer or his one hander).
Thanks Swirly. I will do a piece on the single-hander later this year for sure. Stan's backhand is phenomenal and I have a few thoughts as to why, but let's not forget that Nadal still owned him when he was healthy. His chip return strategy was often rocked against great first-strike players like Nadal and Federer. Match-ups play a huge role in how comfortable your game will feel against certain styles, and Stan just matched up better with Nole than he did against Fedal. But yeah I will write a piece on this soon!
Hello again. Another question that's been in my mind pretty much since reading this sub, regarding ceilings and roofs (bad days) (by the way I'm sorry for turning that comment section into a thought box aha), and which I think this piece solved so I just wanted to confirm. An idea I got from that sub was that great technique helped your 7 out of 10 days and bad technique ceils your shot, but I wonder how much it can ceil you. I will take an example : Alcaraz, Tsitsipas and Felix Auger Aliassime all have technical limitations on their backhands (I put them in order). However, it's clear Alcaraz's is better than Stefanos' which is better than Felix's. On a bad day, all three can bleed errors and lead to a defeat (especially Felix). However, on a good one, I feel like Alcaraz can be a rock, change direction, generate power (like his match against djokovic at madrid), and so is Tsitsipas who can attack with it, though the defense will always be a problem, whereas Felix is just gonna "hide" it on a good day. He is not gonna deal damage with it but be just solid enough to turn to his forehand. But I wondered why there seemed to be such a difference in their best level (alcaraz on his days doesnt seem limited at all). Is it simply the fact that their technique is respectively better and so is the ceiling, or is it this thing of global and local maximum where Alcaraz can sometimes jump to the bests level on the backhand because he hits landmarks whereas Felix will only maximise his "local" backhand.
Thanks already and sorry for that horrible english
I agree with your order: Alcaraz's backhand is very good, but it is clearly the weakest part of his game (apart from his serve maybe). I think it is as you say; Alcaraz's technique—while not the absolute global maximum (in my opinion), is still very good—whereas Felix has a real kink that handicaps his potential on that side a lot more. Felix has a lot more noise in his swing right before and after contact ( he drops a lot but from the outside, and then opens up his hips a lot forcing him to use a lot of wrist action. He rarely finishes with the locked wrist feature we see in Alcaraz/Djokovic/Fritz/Korda etc) so on a good day Alcaraz is always going to hit it a lot better than Felix. Plus, Alcaraz moves a lot better which helps also. I think FAA needs to make a technical change or risk having a Berdych/Tsonga career without a slam. As a single-hander Tsitsi's issues are mainly with the slice; his topspin is okay, not great, but okay, but the lack of slice forces him to hit low percentage topspin backhands, and that just adds pressure/makes it worse.
Loved reading, as always, and never ceases to wow me how effortlessly Carlos glides up the court to storm his opponent with such ease. Think he only sometimes fires long up the line on his FH if the ball in is low and short enough, but on clay, Cam's BH sits up too nicely for that.
As a defence of Cam's FH aggression, he's actually changed and improved his swing pattern and parts of his footwork to create a better working, attacking mechanism that allows him to hit better inside-in shots (great/important for improved ad court dominance on HCs, as seen at United Cup) and down the line on clay to stretch opposition (last year during his Lyon title run, he was floating up those changes of direction and teeing opponents up for counterpunches in behind).
I think he actually executed that aggression really well early on but Carlos' serve shut him out and eventually knocked his confidence. His footing deep into the corners on clay is a weak point, so, even as a leftie, he's rarely properly settled to handle the ad kicker; his BH can't absorb pace or carry any weight against deuce 1st serves, so s+v's & +1s are easy to win with, and the compensating he does for that side on clay by stepping up was shut down by the far more extreme kick to the body he was facing on the day.
Agreed. Early on Cam had 4 forehand winners to Carlos' 2. Norrie just doesn't quite have enough weapons to push higher in the rankings but I love his mentality and approach to the game.
I'm biased here but I do think, even with the level of talent around him, his FH progression is something to be watchful of, just a shame the Gasquet final loss rocked him out of a potentially great AO run. Last year was the inside-out/dtl shot becoming a reliable weapon; this year is already showing that he can hunt the ad court unlike before and can actually absorb pressure close to the baseline with the FH – two things that were crucial to his 2 t10 wins so far which were otherwise absent last year. Hopefully he's in better shape to apply this during the upcoming slow HC swing.
Thanks for that piece Hugh, always a pleasure reading you say positive things about Carlos' groundstrokes. One question that crossed my mind. You seem pretty bullish on Taylor Fritz's backhand (I saw a post on tennis warehouse where you put his and nole's aside) but, since you haven't made a dedicated piece to him (either that or I missed it) I would like to ask you quickly what you think his ceiling is? What are his weaknesses ? Because to me, he is in a category where I just can't see him dominate the game like Carlos, Jannik or Rune.
Fritz has a great backhand. To me his biggest weakness is clearly his movement; he's just way too slow and heavy-footed to dominate the game. His fundamentals off the ground are good and his serve is good also, but he's just a poor mover for top-10 standards. On top of that, he doesn't really have much variation in his game; he can't slice or mix up height that well (Sinner is in that category a little bit) and that also hurts his chances.
not really related to this article, but i thought you might enjoy this translated interview with Jose Higueras (if you haven't seen it already). he touches on some interesting topics related to coaching, especially with gamesense, technique, movement, and emotional stability: https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php?threads/an-abridged-transcript-of-an-extensive-interview-with-former-player-and-coach-jose-higueras.741912/
That was awesome.
Great piece yet again (I have been reading your substacks anonymously with no account for the past year) however I must ask obviously you made a piece on the 2-handed backhand a while ago with Djokovic being the main reference point and what goes into a champion level 2-hander but could you do one analysing the 1-handed backhand now if you have the time?.
I'm especially curious about Wawrinka's backhand more than anyone else's 1-hander simply because unlike the 99% that have their 1-handers to glue their game together Stanislas (Gasquet too although he's less "gutsy" compared to Stan) seems to be the only person than can willingly crunch that shot heavy with more often than not higher pace than majority of the players' forehands and he can do so without warning. Also why is it even though he is not on the tall side of the ATP tour (standing at 6 foot) Nadal's aggressive high kicking topspin doesn't affect Wawrinka's backhand like he could bully Federer's? I find that weird considering his height would require less height of the ball bounce to be out of his strike zone compared to how much bounce needed to escape a taller players strike zone wielding a 1-hander (For example Tsitsipas, Dimitrov or Eubanks) yet Wawrinka plows through the ball harder than the 3 mentioned even though theoretically the ball should be hit at an uncomfortable height for Stan and out of his strike zone robbing him of pace???.
Maybe your expertise on the 2-handed backhand could be used as a comparison against the 1-handed backhand would make for an interesting article with Nole and Stan having faced each other numerous times and maybe bring up questions like "Is there really a superior stroke between the two backhands?", "Which backhand has a higher ceiling?" and "Nole 2-hander vs Stan 1-hander, which is the better stroke?". Would like to see the "Local v Global Technical Maximums" for the 1-handers obviously with Wawrinka being the reference point (I am not a fan Federer or his one hander).
Thanks Swirly. I will do a piece on the single-hander later this year for sure. Stan's backhand is phenomenal and I have a few thoughts as to why, but let's not forget that Nadal still owned him when he was healthy. His chip return strategy was often rocked against great first-strike players like Nadal and Federer. Match-ups play a huge role in how comfortable your game will feel against certain styles, and Stan just matched up better with Nole than he did against Fedal. But yeah I will write a piece on this soon!
Thanks Hugh, looking forward to it.
Hello again. Another question that's been in my mind pretty much since reading this sub, regarding ceilings and roofs (bad days) (by the way I'm sorry for turning that comment section into a thought box aha), and which I think this piece solved so I just wanted to confirm. An idea I got from that sub was that great technique helped your 7 out of 10 days and bad technique ceils your shot, but I wonder how much it can ceil you. I will take an example : Alcaraz, Tsitsipas and Felix Auger Aliassime all have technical limitations on their backhands (I put them in order). However, it's clear Alcaraz's is better than Stefanos' which is better than Felix's. On a bad day, all three can bleed errors and lead to a defeat (especially Felix). However, on a good one, I feel like Alcaraz can be a rock, change direction, generate power (like his match against djokovic at madrid), and so is Tsitsipas who can attack with it, though the defense will always be a problem, whereas Felix is just gonna "hide" it on a good day. He is not gonna deal damage with it but be just solid enough to turn to his forehand. But I wondered why there seemed to be such a difference in their best level (alcaraz on his days doesnt seem limited at all). Is it simply the fact that their technique is respectively better and so is the ceiling, or is it this thing of global and local maximum where Alcaraz can sometimes jump to the bests level on the backhand because he hits landmarks whereas Felix will only maximise his "local" backhand.
Thanks already and sorry for that horrible english
I agree with your order: Alcaraz's backhand is very good, but it is clearly the weakest part of his game (apart from his serve maybe). I think it is as you say; Alcaraz's technique—while not the absolute global maximum (in my opinion), is still very good—whereas Felix has a real kink that handicaps his potential on that side a lot more. Felix has a lot more noise in his swing right before and after contact ( he drops a lot but from the outside, and then opens up his hips a lot forcing him to use a lot of wrist action. He rarely finishes with the locked wrist feature we see in Alcaraz/Djokovic/Fritz/Korda etc) so on a good day Alcaraz is always going to hit it a lot better than Felix. Plus, Alcaraz moves a lot better which helps also. I think FAA needs to make a technical change or risk having a Berdych/Tsonga career without a slam. As a single-hander Tsitsi's issues are mainly with the slice; his topspin is okay, not great, but okay, but the lack of slice forces him to hit low percentage topspin backhands, and that just adds pressure/makes it worse.
Thanks again, your insight has really helped understanding the game more since reading