Steffi Graf Forehand (Opponent's View)

Steffi Graf Forehand, Opponent's view: This view of Steffi's forehand allows you to see the problem her forehand posed for her opponents. In the 15-0 point, Jana hits a shot to Steffi's backhand that gives Steffi the opportunity to run around and hit her forehand. Defensively, Jana takes up a position left of center, cheating to her backhand side, expecting the inside-out forehand. Against Steffi's forehand from the backhand corner, however, Jana's position does not bisect the court or the area of the virtual court that is in play. Given that Steffi can hit a forehand that bounces in the AD court service box and angles outwide or an inside-in forehand down the opposite sideline, Jana finds herself in the no-win situation Steffi's forehand posed for all her opponents. On this point, Steffi goes inside-in for an uncontested winner. This was the strategic brilliance of Steffi's game. By running around her backhand and being able to go inside-out at a short angle or inside-in (straight or at a short angle), Steffi widened the court considerably and made her opponents defend too much space.
This clip also gives you very good view of Steffi's technique on the forehand. Take note of two things -- how she takes the racquet straight back (short with the racquet face at or below the flight of the ball) and how she releases the wrist at contact, perhaps even slightly before, and aggressively closes the face of the racquet. Steffi's forehand was quite advanced. Indeed, her technique has more in common with ATP-style forehands of today than WTA-style forehands. For more on the topic, see this video -- • Video .
Pilot Pen 1998

[@CeartGoLeor86]

It helped that she had the best footwork of any tennis player. Nobody as better at running into position.

[@gopher3737]

great video and analysis. Only thing I can think of as to why running around the forehand is not always a good idea is that it gets you slightly out of position for the next shot. But Graf's forehands always seemed to have a ton of power on them, so that probably made up for any court positioning disadvantage. Graf was my favorite women's player to watch by far

[@idontsignin]

@gopher3737 you can disguise the shot alot more and you have more power on your forehand side, the only other player that i have seen doing it on a regular basis is federer.