I'd like to see content on how recreational players can incorporate this technical philosophy into their game. There's a lot of content about tips, tricks and cues for the strokes, but there's not a lot about how to actually deliberately practice to incorporate them into your game.
to be clear, the fundamentals of tennis are really what all recreational players need to focus on: footwork, early preparation, unit turn, split step, shot selection etc etc. Those things get you 99% of the way there. These articles highlight swing mechanic differences that can be exposed/you see the trade off at the elite top-100 level. It doesn't matter what swing you have if you aren't completely mastering those earlier fundamentals I mentioned.
I feel like those are known factors that a lot of other content on the internet covers. What I've enjoyed from your writing is the "how" aspect of practicing those things. Like the advice for Zverev to serve in front of and behind the baseline to work on his second serve. Or the Dan Bradman desirable difficulties of using an old wooden racket as a sweet spot trainer. The question I'm interested in exploring, where I see a content gap is "how can recreational players learn better?" and not necessarily "what do recreational players need to learn?"
Firstly it probably depends if you're talking about technique or tactics.
Technique is very difficult thing to change and a recreational player has significant technical things that could be improved. It also depends if technique is more important that shot selection and where the bigger wins can be made, again depending on the level of player.
Hi Hugh! I've been reading one of your posts a day since mid-October and now I'm finally at the end :) There's so much I've learned from your posts and I'm excited to read more.
Congratulations on your Masters degree! That is a big accomplishment! Can I ask what your capstone was on -- I would especially love to know what it covers if it's tennis related.
Also, a podcast that interviews ATP tennis coaches sounds like an amazing idea. I would listen to every single episode of that.
Some topics of interest, for me at least, would include:
- similar in-depth analysis that you've done on FH/BH techniques but on volleys
- doubles technique -- what makes a great doubles team?
- why has Sinner, who started to play tennis so late in the game, been able to become one of the best players?
- there have been some players that grew up playing tennis together -- Alcaraz/Rune and Medvedev/Rublev come to mind. It would be cool to read a comparison of these types of relationships/players and why one or the other has come out ahead.
These are just some off the top of my head and not anything that you should do if it's of no interest to you or others, but you mentioned you might like some ideas!
Hi Hugh, Great analysis again! I went out to hit with my daughter who had not played for four months. Her mechanics are very simple on both sides. A one handed backhand with little flip of the racket. A forehand that is very clean with little flip. With a four month break in hand we went out over the Thksgiving break to hit and...
No shanks at all. It was as if she had played yesterday. So clean and very consistent. Hardly missed at all. She was never the best. She could get hit off the court against bigger harder or more topspin prone players. But she has a game that she can keep forever.
Technique matters as you say. Funny that everyone is so focused on the flip and the increase in topspin. Now we see an opposite trend. Djokovic is making everyone wonder if all those extra movements are worth the effort.
I always tell people that eventually someone will come along who hits harder than you do. How can you handle it is the key. My sense is that the great champions are able to harness other people's power and redirect it. Do you think that Djokovic might start a paradigm shift away from big power in tennis? Is this another transition in tennis? After reading your post, it got me thinking...
Hard to tell! Sometimes a player comes along and perfects a technique that is even better, but it seems for now that the Djokovic mold is the best under current conditions/equipment rules.
Maybe for other gamestyles, different swings might be beneficial.
Great write up on it. I would think Novak has only this next year to win more Majors, but who knows? Now the Big 3 have basically told 2 generations of players they will never be as good as they are. Fed was the gold standard of performance at age 36. Now it is clearly Novak.
Who knows. We know athletes are keeping a high level at 38/39, so that would give Novak 2 more years around this level perhaps. Depends how deep the field gets; if it gets tougher to win 2,3, 4 matches to win a slam, you'll need a big tank.
Nov 20, 2023·edited Nov 20, 2023Liked by Hugh Clarke
Thanks for your analysis Mr. Clarke, I regularly look forward to your posts and tweets. Have you considered a YouTube channel?
A couple of questions regarding Djokovic that I would like to pose:
1. How would you classify his physical fitness/movement (speed, agility, flexibility, stamina, etc.) at this current stage of his career (in general and compared to his younger self) and how long do you think he can keep being competitive at the very top for?
2. Other than "the eye test" are there any analytics that one can refer to when it comes to player physicality? Seeing as how we are now given a variety of different stats by the ATP after matches, I would think there could be some metrics that could be used to analyze player's bodies over time.
After Novak wins like this you can expect the usual types of comments from the Tennis world that Novak is moving like a 26 year old, that he can play and win into his 40s, win 30+ grand slams.... but those sound like flimsy exaggerations to me, which is why the analytics question comes to mind to see if there are more reliable and exact ways to measure some of this kind of stuff.
I haven't considered YouTube mainly because I feel that space is pretty saturated. There's a ton of good channels for club player swing stuff (2 minute tennis, Intuitive tennis, top tennis training, Karue Sell is great etc.) and Gill Gross does great work on YouTube Spotify doing match breakdowns. I see the written form as my sweetspot for now, but am looking to add in podcasts more for interviews rather than analyses.
1) I think his flexibility is still there. He's a touch off his 2011/peak speed/agility/stamina but he makes up for it with better serving/volley/slicing etc. More agression.
2) Not sure about this. Depends what you mean by "physicality". Sometimes you get data on how far a player ran in a match, but that's about it at the moment.
I will say that Novak is "only" 36, and we have seen athletes recently hav success well into their late 30s — Brady, Federer — so 30 slams and another couple of years at the top wouldn't really be all that surprising. Especially given he has made intelligent adjustments (like becoming a serve-bot!) that aid in reducing wear-and-tear match to match
Great analysis as always. One small point of debate though : haven't you been a *little* negative with the baby gen technique deterioration? This piece, while as informative as always, felt a little pessimistic. This season ended on a high note for Novak on a surface where I think he is his best version : his serve goes bonkers, and rallies are shortened as he has got faster way to exploit small cracks, that get a little closer to flaws (indoors help timing but they also help Novak's offense). I think on more common surfaces those cracks are harder to find, unlike Zverev's FH, Tsitsipas's BH, Felix's everything etc
I'm gonna go player by player as a way to write it down somewhere going into next season:
Sinner's rally FH, as you mentioned, was the weakest link on court and I think the weakest in the 6 Babygen's groundstrokes. Altough it goes out quick which helps when on defense/sliding, it's got those variables that hinder his consistency even from pretty easy positions. Completely agree with you, and it was exploited at SW19 too.
Sinner's BH ticks two less control-oriented boxes with the absence of locked wrist follow through and less smooth full turn with that dynamic flip, but a full turn nonetheless which helps getting the inside. I think it is worth mentioning that Sinner's BH is still damn consistent.
While Alcaraz doesnt get a full take back, it's still closer to a 180 than a De Minaur kind of turn, and he has the locked wrist follow through on some ones. Overall less consistent than Sinner's, but better at redirecting (I just see so much BDTL from him if you go 52-weeks)
His FH, while exploitable if you rush it because of the inverted start, is a bigger beast than Sinner's. It felt bad on those quick courts, but he definitely is a ferris wheel with upright head and extended wrist, as you mentioned after Miami, which makes it better than Sinner's imo. And we've seen him adapt his footwork at Wimbledon to run better into it.
In the end, Rune is this sub's and mine favorite's when it comes to next gen technique. While he doesn't tick the locked wrist follow through, his full turn is the smoothest of the 3/closer to Djokovic/Zverev.
His FH is also in the modern mold and ticks all the boxes you want without the inverted start. There is that chink with the left hand but I think the fact we've only seen flashes of his brillance this season is more due to him being raw physically and tactically (plus dealing the wrong way with a pack of injuries) than anything technique related.
Now that this message is over I realize it's not even a real question so I can understand if you leave it behind.
Thanks for that year of analysis anyway. It was extremely insightful and upped my tennis knowledge I believe.
Yeah I think the Sinner/Rune/Alcaraz trio are great players and still young/able to improve, but i don't think they will ever achieve the end-range consistency we got from the big-3 if they maintain their current technique. They may serve bigger (especially on second), come foward better, drop shot better, etc., but I think that is a suboptimal tradeoff. Best to maximize your bread-and-butter forehand and backhand capabilities in modern conditions.
That early left hand take off on the FH? Just saw a conversation on r/10s about Rune missing shoulder abduction which can explain this lack of easy power. But does easy power generation really affect end range consistency where it’s more about absorbing than generating?
From what I see, Rune has a lot of growing up to do. Still doesn't seem to have a clear style of game plan, and he mentally isn't as strong; always looking to the box, making faces, carrying on—Sinner and Alcaraz have him covered in that department.
The early left hand take-off isn't ideal, but a certain Argentine did the same thing and had an absolute hammer. I also don't think Rune lacks power or that shoulder abduction is necessary for power; especially when you keep a very upright racquet head as Rune does; it allows Rune to accelerate from "the very top of the Ferris Wheel" and is actually one reason why he can crush the ball at end-range.
He does seem to over-rotate at times and let his left side open too early, and that kills his timing and power, so maybe that is related to the early left hand take off, but the ingredients are there with minor tweaks to make it a really consistent weapon.
Huge upside if he can settle on gamestyle/mentality.
Just needed some reassurance on Rune's technical cleanliness aha. You and Zero_Dimension98 over on reddit seem to have differing views on what can make Rune waver on the FH side (or maybe my english vocabulary isn't good enough and I don't see it being actually similar), but nothing like a good technical debate.
Completely agree on the mentality side of things. Stamina also a big-obvious issue. Last two times he faced Novak he matched him for two sets (despite both guys playing sub optimal) but died out in the 3rd
Before it seemed like the backhands of Sinner and Zverev were considered to be close to on par with Djokovic's. Would that be inaccurate, and if so, are there any that you would consider to be even close to the Serb's?
I think Zverev's backhand is right there with Novak's and he's probably got the best backhand on clay given how tall he is and how much lift he generates in the takeback.
Sinner's is very good; extreme power and spin, but he doesn't change direction as well as Djoker, Korda, Fritz etc.
Korda and Fritz have great flat backhands but just lack the athleticism and movement of novak to be able to leverage it as well.
Carlos has a great attacking backhand but gets into trouble if you rush him and hit it very deep sometimes. Interestingly, when he was younger and using the pure areo (so when he was weaker and using a move even balanced stick) his takeback was longer and more like a Djokovic.
Interesting, so for Alcaraz, is there an adjustment somewhere in there that he can make to fix those issues? Maybe working to increase the fullness of his preparation during his time off?
Maybe; so hard to know what their plan/intention is moving forward, or if there is another way I haven't mentioned that could mitigate his errors. Sometimes it can just be a mindset shift of wanting to be more consistent, which I felt he had at Wimbledon.
Late reply, but I was thinking about this some more. Recalling a post of yours detailing how players like Murray, Korda, and Fritz developed flat (but still great) backhands likely due to developing mostly on hard courts, why do you think players like Djokovic and Alcaraz similarly develop world class flatter backhands despite growing up on clay?
I think backhands in general are usually flat; most clay courters even, have a flat backhand. Probably because it's easier to hit at shoulder height and control the ball, or take it earlier, with two hands, so a flat backhand works even on clay/higher bounce.
yeah although I haven't seen a lot of data in spin rates in the last few years. This graph from 2018 suggests that most players sit around 1000 rpm lower on their backhands compared to forehands. Heavy 2-handers include Nadal, Basilashvili, FAA. Nadal and FAA get a lot of drop in the backswing.
A second comment. Isn't a better approach to use slice against Djokovic? Nadal showed that he was better off slicing like crazy against him and waiting for a forehand that he could unload on. Ironically, I have been playing around with this in my own game lately. My one handed backhand is my best shot. I can hit clean winners with it. But it is more of a wildcard and I miss if I get too excited. It also sits up more and if the person has time to setup, they can take time away. Lately, I have been finding that if I slice, it really bothers my opponent. This is especially true against two handers. After two or three slices, my opponent will hit to either corner. If they hit to my backhand and I have lots of time, I can just change to topspin without any great risk. The change in spin throws them off and most of the time I win the point outright or generate a short ball I can then attack. If they hit to my forehand, then it naturally allows me to either wrongfoot them back to the backhand or hit a short angle. The slice sets up a situation with no good solutions on their part.
Of course, there is the Wawrinka approach but no one IMHO has a backhand that matches his and that can simply change the equation of a match so drastically that he is virtually like a lefty. Wawrinka in his prime when he was on was virtually unstoppable. Federer would scrape his way through but no two hander could handle him. So unless someone has a Wawrinka-like backhand and game, shouldn't they just slice a bunch on the backhand or mix the slice with topspin and/or flat backhands? Allowing Djokovic to hover near the baseline with balls near waste height is worse.
I love my one handed backhand and take pride in hitting people off the court. But maybe the solution is to use Brad Gilbert's approach of finding an opponents weakness and exploiting it. Even if it means underutilizing a strength.
I know pro tennis is a whole other ball game. But strategy is strategy and maybe Sinner, Alcaraz and company will have to learn to win ugly to beat Djokovic.
Yeah but it is difficult to ask a player to do a 180 on their usual style/game plan when they face Novak. It's not a huge weakness of Novak's either; he still handles slice well, it's just not his strength to attack low slice balls. you have to have the slice game as part of your DNA to make that work, like an evans or lopez. Sinner needs to get better (as he has done) with his change-of-direction backhand more than anything and continue finding control in his bread-and-butter ground game I think. He's made big strides in the last year or so.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/aHhU7LRjti1YJDdF7
unbelievable performance
I'd like to see content on how recreational players can incorporate this technical philosophy into their game. There's a lot of content about tips, tricks and cues for the strokes, but there's not a lot about how to actually deliberately practice to incorporate them into your game.
to be clear, the fundamentals of tennis are really what all recreational players need to focus on: footwork, early preparation, unit turn, split step, shot selection etc etc. Those things get you 99% of the way there. These articles highlight swing mechanic differences that can be exposed/you see the trade off at the elite top-100 level. It doesn't matter what swing you have if you aren't completely mastering those earlier fundamentals I mentioned.
I feel like those are known factors that a lot of other content on the internet covers. What I've enjoyed from your writing is the "how" aspect of practicing those things. Like the advice for Zverev to serve in front of and behind the baseline to work on his second serve. Or the Dan Bradman desirable difficulties of using an old wooden racket as a sweet spot trainer. The question I'm interested in exploring, where I see a content gap is "how can recreational players learn better?" and not necessarily "what do recreational players need to learn?"
certainly scope for a piece like that. I've trickled in aspects of learning in a few other pieces too. Most recently in 'changing technique'
https://hughclarke.substack.com/p/changing-technique
Firstly it probably depends if you're talking about technique or tactics.
Technique is very difficult thing to change and a recreational player has significant technical things that could be improved. It also depends if technique is more important that shot selection and where the bigger wins can be made, again depending on the level of player.
Hi Hugh! I've been reading one of your posts a day since mid-October and now I'm finally at the end :) There's so much I've learned from your posts and I'm excited to read more.
Congratulations on your Masters degree! That is a big accomplishment! Can I ask what your capstone was on -- I would especially love to know what it covers if it's tennis related.
Also, a podcast that interviews ATP tennis coaches sounds like an amazing idea. I would listen to every single episode of that.
Some topics of interest, for me at least, would include:
- similar in-depth analysis that you've done on FH/BH techniques but on volleys
- doubles technique -- what makes a great doubles team?
- why has Sinner, who started to play tennis so late in the game, been able to become one of the best players?
- there have been some players that grew up playing tennis together -- Alcaraz/Rune and Medvedev/Rublev come to mind. It would be cool to read a comparison of these types of relationships/players and why one or the other has come out ahead.
These are just some off the top of my head and not anything that you should do if it's of no interest to you or others, but you mentioned you might like some ideas!
Thanks again for all of your great content.
Thanks Dagmar! There is no capstone course — in fact, the degree is really tailored to classes and subjects that interest you :)
Hi Hugh, Great analysis again! I went out to hit with my daughter who had not played for four months. Her mechanics are very simple on both sides. A one handed backhand with little flip of the racket. A forehand that is very clean with little flip. With a four month break in hand we went out over the Thksgiving break to hit and...
No shanks at all. It was as if she had played yesterday. So clean and very consistent. Hardly missed at all. She was never the best. She could get hit off the court against bigger harder or more topspin prone players. But she has a game that she can keep forever.
Technique matters as you say. Funny that everyone is so focused on the flip and the increase in topspin. Now we see an opposite trend. Djokovic is making everyone wonder if all those extra movements are worth the effort.
I always tell people that eventually someone will come along who hits harder than you do. How can you handle it is the key. My sense is that the great champions are able to harness other people's power and redirect it. Do you think that Djokovic might start a paradigm shift away from big power in tennis? Is this another transition in tennis? After reading your post, it got me thinking...
Hard to tell! Sometimes a player comes along and perfects a technique that is even better, but it seems for now that the Djokovic mold is the best under current conditions/equipment rules.
Maybe for other gamestyles, different swings might be beneficial.
Great write up on it. I would think Novak has only this next year to win more Majors, but who knows? Now the Big 3 have basically told 2 generations of players they will never be as good as they are. Fed was the gold standard of performance at age 36. Now it is clearly Novak.
Who knows. We know athletes are keeping a high level at 38/39, so that would give Novak 2 more years around this level perhaps. Depends how deep the field gets; if it gets tougher to win 2,3, 4 matches to win a slam, you'll need a big tank.
Thanks for your analysis Mr. Clarke, I regularly look forward to your posts and tweets. Have you considered a YouTube channel?
A couple of questions regarding Djokovic that I would like to pose:
1. How would you classify his physical fitness/movement (speed, agility, flexibility, stamina, etc.) at this current stage of his career (in general and compared to his younger self) and how long do you think he can keep being competitive at the very top for?
2. Other than "the eye test" are there any analytics that one can refer to when it comes to player physicality? Seeing as how we are now given a variety of different stats by the ATP after matches, I would think there could be some metrics that could be used to analyze player's bodies over time.
After Novak wins like this you can expect the usual types of comments from the Tennis world that Novak is moving like a 26 year old, that he can play and win into his 40s, win 30+ grand slams.... but those sound like flimsy exaggerations to me, which is why the analytics question comes to mind to see if there are more reliable and exact ways to measure some of this kind of stuff.
I haven't considered YouTube mainly because I feel that space is pretty saturated. There's a ton of good channels for club player swing stuff (2 minute tennis, Intuitive tennis, top tennis training, Karue Sell is great etc.) and Gill Gross does great work on YouTube Spotify doing match breakdowns. I see the written form as my sweetspot for now, but am looking to add in podcasts more for interviews rather than analyses.
1) I think his flexibility is still there. He's a touch off his 2011/peak speed/agility/stamina but he makes up for it with better serving/volley/slicing etc. More agression.
2) Not sure about this. Depends what you mean by "physicality". Sometimes you get data on how far a player ran in a match, but that's about it at the moment.
I will say that Novak is "only" 36, and we have seen athletes recently hav success well into their late 30s — Brady, Federer — so 30 slams and another couple of years at the top wouldn't really be all that surprising. Especially given he has made intelligent adjustments (like becoming a serve-bot!) that aid in reducing wear-and-tear match to match
Hi Hugh,
Great analysis as always. One small point of debate though : haven't you been a *little* negative with the baby gen technique deterioration? This piece, while as informative as always, felt a little pessimistic. This season ended on a high note for Novak on a surface where I think he is his best version : his serve goes bonkers, and rallies are shortened as he has got faster way to exploit small cracks, that get a little closer to flaws (indoors help timing but they also help Novak's offense). I think on more common surfaces those cracks are harder to find, unlike Zverev's FH, Tsitsipas's BH, Felix's everything etc
I'm gonna go player by player as a way to write it down somewhere going into next season:
Sinner's rally FH, as you mentioned, was the weakest link on court and I think the weakest in the 6 Babygen's groundstrokes. Altough it goes out quick which helps when on defense/sliding, it's got those variables that hinder his consistency even from pretty easy positions. Completely agree with you, and it was exploited at SW19 too.
Sinner's BH ticks two less control-oriented boxes with the absence of locked wrist follow through and less smooth full turn with that dynamic flip, but a full turn nonetheless which helps getting the inside. I think it is worth mentioning that Sinner's BH is still damn consistent.
While Alcaraz doesnt get a full take back, it's still closer to a 180 than a De Minaur kind of turn, and he has the locked wrist follow through on some ones. Overall less consistent than Sinner's, but better at redirecting (I just see so much BDTL from him if you go 52-weeks)
His FH, while exploitable if you rush it because of the inverted start, is a bigger beast than Sinner's. It felt bad on those quick courts, but he definitely is a ferris wheel with upright head and extended wrist, as you mentioned after Miami, which makes it better than Sinner's imo. And we've seen him adapt his footwork at Wimbledon to run better into it.
In the end, Rune is this sub's and mine favorite's when it comes to next gen technique. While he doesn't tick the locked wrist follow through, his full turn is the smoothest of the 3/closer to Djokovic/Zverev.
His FH is also in the modern mold and ticks all the boxes you want without the inverted start. There is that chink with the left hand but I think the fact we've only seen flashes of his brillance this season is more due to him being raw physically and tactically (plus dealing the wrong way with a pack of injuries) than anything technique related.
Now that this message is over I realize it's not even a real question so I can understand if you leave it behind.
Thanks for that year of analysis anyway. It was extremely insightful and upped my tennis knowledge I believe.
Yeah I think the Sinner/Rune/Alcaraz trio are great players and still young/able to improve, but i don't think they will ever achieve the end-range consistency we got from the big-3 if they maintain their current technique. They may serve bigger (especially on second), come foward better, drop shot better, etc., but I think that is a suboptimal tradeoff. Best to maximize your bread-and-butter forehand and backhand capabilities in modern conditions.
Still so young, so we will see.
What do you think Rune has to do to get there?
That early left hand take off on the FH? Just saw a conversation on r/10s about Rune missing shoulder abduction which can explain this lack of easy power. But does easy power generation really affect end range consistency where it’s more about absorbing than generating?
To me he is the closest of the three.
From what I see, Rune has a lot of growing up to do. Still doesn't seem to have a clear style of game plan, and he mentally isn't as strong; always looking to the box, making faces, carrying on—Sinner and Alcaraz have him covered in that department.
The early left hand take-off isn't ideal, but a certain Argentine did the same thing and had an absolute hammer. I also don't think Rune lacks power or that shoulder abduction is necessary for power; especially when you keep a very upright racquet head as Rune does; it allows Rune to accelerate from "the very top of the Ferris Wheel" and is actually one reason why he can crush the ball at end-range.
He does seem to over-rotate at times and let his left side open too early, and that kills his timing and power, so maybe that is related to the early left hand take off, but the ingredients are there with minor tweaks to make it a really consistent weapon.
Huge upside if he can settle on gamestyle/mentality.
Okay thanks,
Just needed some reassurance on Rune's technical cleanliness aha. You and Zero_Dimension98 over on reddit seem to have differing views on what can make Rune waver on the FH side (or maybe my english vocabulary isn't good enough and I don't see it being actually similar), but nothing like a good technical debate.
Completely agree on the mentality side of things. Stamina also a big-obvious issue. Last two times he faced Novak he matched him for two sets (despite both guys playing sub optimal) but died out in the 3rd
Before it seemed like the backhands of Sinner and Zverev were considered to be close to on par with Djokovic's. Would that be inaccurate, and if so, are there any that you would consider to be even close to the Serb's?
I think Zverev's backhand is right there with Novak's and he's probably got the best backhand on clay given how tall he is and how much lift he generates in the takeback.
Sinner's is very good; extreme power and spin, but he doesn't change direction as well as Djoker, Korda, Fritz etc.
Korda and Fritz have great flat backhands but just lack the athleticism and movement of novak to be able to leverage it as well.
Carlos has a great attacking backhand but gets into trouble if you rush him and hit it very deep sometimes. Interestingly, when he was younger and using the pure areo (so when he was weaker and using a move even balanced stick) his takeback was longer and more like a Djokovic.
Interesting, so for Alcaraz, is there an adjustment somewhere in there that he can make to fix those issues? Maybe working to increase the fullness of his preparation during his time off?
Maybe; so hard to know what their plan/intention is moving forward, or if there is another way I haven't mentioned that could mitigate his errors. Sometimes it can just be a mindset shift of wanting to be more consistent, which I felt he had at Wimbledon.
Late reply, but I was thinking about this some more. Recalling a post of yours detailing how players like Murray, Korda, and Fritz developed flat (but still great) backhands likely due to developing mostly on hard courts, why do you think players like Djokovic and Alcaraz similarly develop world class flatter backhands despite growing up on clay?
I think backhands in general are usually flat; most clay courters even, have a flat backhand. Probably because it's easier to hit at shoulder height and control the ball, or take it earlier, with two hands, so a flat backhand works even on clay/higher bounce.
So would Nadal and Sinner be exceptions more than the rule?
yeah although I haven't seen a lot of data in spin rates in the last few years. This graph from 2018 suggests that most players sit around 1000 rpm lower on their backhands compared to forehands. Heavy 2-handers include Nadal, Basilashvili, FAA. Nadal and FAA get a lot of drop in the backswing.
A second comment. Isn't a better approach to use slice against Djokovic? Nadal showed that he was better off slicing like crazy against him and waiting for a forehand that he could unload on. Ironically, I have been playing around with this in my own game lately. My one handed backhand is my best shot. I can hit clean winners with it. But it is more of a wildcard and I miss if I get too excited. It also sits up more and if the person has time to setup, they can take time away. Lately, I have been finding that if I slice, it really bothers my opponent. This is especially true against two handers. After two or three slices, my opponent will hit to either corner. If they hit to my backhand and I have lots of time, I can just change to topspin without any great risk. The change in spin throws them off and most of the time I win the point outright or generate a short ball I can then attack. If they hit to my forehand, then it naturally allows me to either wrongfoot them back to the backhand or hit a short angle. The slice sets up a situation with no good solutions on their part.
Of course, there is the Wawrinka approach but no one IMHO has a backhand that matches his and that can simply change the equation of a match so drastically that he is virtually like a lefty. Wawrinka in his prime when he was on was virtually unstoppable. Federer would scrape his way through but no two hander could handle him. So unless someone has a Wawrinka-like backhand and game, shouldn't they just slice a bunch on the backhand or mix the slice with topspin and/or flat backhands? Allowing Djokovic to hover near the baseline with balls near waste height is worse.
I love my one handed backhand and take pride in hitting people off the court. But maybe the solution is to use Brad Gilbert's approach of finding an opponents weakness and exploiting it. Even if it means underutilizing a strength.
I know pro tennis is a whole other ball game. But strategy is strategy and maybe Sinner, Alcaraz and company will have to learn to win ugly to beat Djokovic.
Just wondering.
Yeah but it is difficult to ask a player to do a 180 on their usual style/game plan when they face Novak. It's not a huge weakness of Novak's either; he still handles slice well, it's just not his strength to attack low slice balls. you have to have the slice game as part of your DNA to make that work, like an evans or lopez. Sinner needs to get better (as he has done) with his change-of-direction backhand more than anything and continue finding control in his bread-and-butter ground game I think. He's made big strides in the last year or so.