It is an absolute pleasure to watch Richard make various kind of single-handed backhand shots live. I think he’s one of the most talented single-hander in this century.
Watching a clean winner off the one handed backhand is the most satisfying shot to watch. Those of us who play the game know how difficult it is to produce. A two hander is far easier to hit.
In fact, the singled handed backhand is a natural stroke, only thought (and taught) to be difficult. Ever try throwing a frisbee, or a hat, or a plate, with a forehand? That's unnatural, isn't it? So, when I teach the single handed backhand, I ask my "students" (actually people with whom I play) to throw the tennis ball can lid like a frisbee, and not to use the wrist, but to "drive" with the whole shoulder and with the arm straight. And the grip? That's easy! You hold the racket in the "prompt position", just don't hold the racket tight yet, but keep the grip in continental. Now, turn your body to hit a backhand with your non-hitting hand holding the racket with the head pointing up as it should, let the grip roll easy in your hand, but don't change the position of your wrist from the "continental shape" yet. Once the racket head points behind, just stick your hand into "grabbing" the grip. That's the backhand grip. And in no time you'll be hitting good single handed backhand. Of course, you've got to have proper footing. If you're already a tennis player, that shouldn't be a problem. An acquaintance with whom I taught the technique used to play a two hander. After I told him the easy trick, he has since switched to a one hander (over 15 years now) and is now a tennis coach. Easy, isn't it. A beautiful shot. Only not properly taught.
And to be successful with it, one must have an attacking game style. It never works for defensive players. Hence the latest version of Thiem barely can win matches, because he lacks his former aggression in his strokes, same goes with Wawrinka, Gasquet and Federer before he retired. You need lighting quick reflexes at the net, incredible hand skills overall and an overall great serve to be able to harness the advantages of a one hander, namely a low slice, more court coverage, more net coverage and a general quicker swing. All these turn to disadvantages if one is defensive. Tsitsipas could implement all these strategies succsessfully, as he has the skills necessary but he is too stubborn to change his defensive style, Mussetti also plays on any surface as though it were clay. This is why we do not have any one handed backhand in the top ten and I foresee that we will not have for a long time due to the overall defensive strategies that coaches and players employ nowadays.
The courts need to be slightly quicker or atleast balls need to be lighter. Even if you hit 90 mph forehands, your opponent can likely get to it because of how much the ball decelerates.
I am not so sure if "barely" winning matched apply to Fed. He was off for more than a year and reached quarters of wimbledon with an injured knee. Actually doubling down on your point, the reason Fed wins even when injured is partly because of his court positioning which is a lot more brave and aggressive; almost refusing to step back. Of course he has the natural gift of being able to absorb pace and hitting on the rise more than most of his contemporaries
Some truth and some wrong here. Saying Tsitsipas and old fed have/had defensive styles is just plain wrong. The problem with Tsitsipas is mainly his flawed technique whether he hits topspin or backhand slices.
Stan had the most technically correct and consistent single-handed backhand of anyone. Gasquet probably hit the fastest backhands ever, but not consistently. And his long windup took too much time to execute in most rallies. Federer has the most variety on the backhand side (and for me also the most aesthetically pleasing backhand). But he could be overpowered on that side by players like Stan or Gasquet. The only player that I could think of who could have challenged for greatest overall single-handed backhand would be Gustavo Kuerten. It would have been interesting to see him and Wawrinka both in their prime.
In the momth of Feb 2024, first time in the ATP ranking, there is no one handed backhand players in top 10. But, this art will come back again with more stability using the second hand.😊
Richard's down the line backhand winner might be my second favorite shot in tennis, right behind Roger's inside-out forehand winner. However, if a match had to be won using only the backhand to save my life, I'd choose Stan's. But.....Roger's backhand, to me, is the best one-hander as his versatility on that wing is second to none with his slices, angles, drop shots, and lob, IMO, he's got the most effective one-hander.
They're all great, but only Gasquet had the ability to vaporize a backhand at such a speed that the opponent couldn't react to it at all. His winner against Murray at 2-0, 15-0 is the fastest backhand I've ever seen, and he does it so smoothly. His timing on that side was unsurpassed.
Two handed bh is easier to learn. This is just matter of understanding that 2hb has flows and 1hdachanders need to use them. Low and weak balls quit difficult to hit from base line. But single handed backhand requires early preparations and less forgiving.
The most impressive one is Almagro's shot. Not for the technical execution, but because hitting a one-handed backhand winner on clay, against Nadal's forehand... it's science fiction😂
I thought dual handed backhand grew more and more popular because kids start learning tennis at a very young age and single handed backhand requires quite a strong arm (it uses completely different muscles than the forehand) so they starts playing tennis with DHB and stick with it. To me it looks really strange to see such fit and muscled player like Alcaratz, Nadal or Djokovich use DHB... Anyway in a match between a DHB player and a SHB player, I will always side with the latter.
Single hander requires the arm which has a better control than for the double hander especially the elbow and the shoulder. Overall, double hander and single hander arms are both pretty much similar, and I would even argue that the double hander requires stronger forearm because most players use a continental grip on their double handed backhand, even though the non-dominant arm supports the swing. In contrast, with a single hander, your non-dominant arm allows for your dominant arm to swing freely by simply helping with the circular take-back motion which naturally generates the kinetic chain that can facilitate your dominant arm to drop right before the contact with the ball, and with an eastern grip (for most single handers), the forearm muscle isn't as much used as for continental group. For these reasons, you can clearly see that Roger's dominant arm's shoulder is, by proportion, very impressively built and broad both posteriorly and laterally compared to most double-handers, while his dominant arm overall is pretty slim, although it's insanely toned and has tremendous functional power. Roger's forearm is insane too which is an exception because his flick of the wrist is second to none, and I'm sure his wrist strength is like a truck. With a very strong shoulder, his dominant arm has that uncanny balance and smooth transition when he's serving, doing the trophy position better than almost anyone else. Meanwhile, his non-dominant arm is a twig as it should be, because with a built non-dominant arm, he wouldn't be able to rotate his left shoulder almost facing the baseline as he sets up his single-handed backhand. Alcaraz, Djokovic, and Nadal all have monstrous forearms for that matter. And it may not be much, but Federer's shoulders are wider than Rafa's. And it shouldn't be surprising that the three players that you mentioned have well-developed and balanced muscles in both arms, especially Rafa who's actually a righty, because clearly their non-dominant arms are really important for a double-hander. Also, contrary to what you might think, Nadal and Djokovic in real life aren't exactly muscular, I saw a video of them that my friend took in 2021. Their muscles are greatly innervated and veinous and toned to the need of the right amount of functional power. They don't need big muscles like UFC fighters or American football players. I played tennis for about 12 years now with a single-hander all my life, and my left shoulder is hilariously weak. I can only do one full rep of 15-20 kg max of dumbbell shoulder press with my left arm.
Players like novak wouldn't have survived if he had a single hander...infact he wouldn't have won even 1 slam or even a atp250 title..considering all this, its incredible how roger reached 20 slams in 20 yrs with his aggressive gameplay...player like novak even with a safer gameplay and two hander took 18 yrs to reach 20 slams...
@tommyjerry5851 The game has changed, and the rate of adaptation doesn't necessarily match the rate of changes. The gradual decline of the one-hander is testament to that.
@tommyjerry5851margin for error is more for a single hander than a double hander and it can easily wear down over 5 sets...on faster courts ,single hander can be of huge advantage but now the atp tour has courts where 95٪ of it play slow to medium paced...that's the reason in last 2 decades, the number of single handers count has reduced compared to that of 80's
Do you even know that Federer as a kid started learning the single handed backhand first and then also tried the double-hander? He even tried to play in a tournament as a kid with his friend in doubles attempting to hit with a double-handed backhand, but said it never suited him. Players adapt to either a single handed backhand or a double handed backhand depending on their compatibility, coaching, etc. "Players like Novak wouldn't have survived if he had a single hander" is one of the dumbest, most illiterate and most baseless comments I've ever seen.
@@TheseHoesAreLoyal same roger once told he wished to have a double hander when he couldn't face high topspin balls from rafa...if a player like rafa never existed, roger would have been happy slicing his backhand...only when it became a liability, he changed his technique very late in his career where he took the ball so early in 2017 and doing that on a consistent basis needs an incredible amount of skill to pull off especially for a single hander
@@vijayendranvijay4538 did you read my comment? Federer, Djokovic, Rafa, and countless number of other players didn't have an option when getting their backhand techniques down. Federer simply couldn't hit a two-handed backhand to save his life. Same with Djoko and Rafa, they couldn't hit a single-hander. You start with what you pick up naturally, and you end up with it for the rest of your career. Stop trying to come up with excuses for Federer's losing h2h against Rafa.
the only one handed backhand that looks good other than the slice is a well executed backhanded overhead. two handed backhand > single handed backhand.
It is an absolute pleasure to watch Richard make various kind of single-handed backhand shots live. I think he’s one of the most talented single-hander in this century.
Yes. This video is right in his wheelhouse. I don't know why anyone even hits to his backhand at all.
The spin Gasquet gets on his backhand is insane. Might be the least error prone topspin one hand backhand I can think of
The most beautiful shot in tennis
Watching a clean winner off the one handed backhand is the most satisfying shot to watch. Those of us who play the game know how difficult it is to produce. A two hander is far easier to hit.
Watching this makes me feel so good that i play single backhand for the last 37yrs 😊😊
I hope Dimitrov keeps up his amazing form as of late, and then we'll have a one hander in the top 10 again!!!
here after he stunned in form alcaraz!
Fed's backhand is a thing of beauty ❤
Thank you so much for this video!!
The most beautiful: Gasquet
The most technically accurate: Wawrinka
The most brutal: Thiem
The most variety: Federer
The most elegant: dimitrov
The one with the most risk taking: Shapovalov ?
What a beauty this shot, the best one in tennis by far.
In fact, the singled handed backhand is a natural stroke, only thought (and taught) to be difficult.
Ever try throwing a frisbee, or a hat, or a plate, with a forehand? That's unnatural, isn't it?
So, when I teach the single handed backhand, I ask my "students" (actually people with whom I play) to throw the tennis ball can lid like a frisbee, and not to use the wrist, but to "drive" with the whole shoulder and with the arm straight.
And the grip? That's easy! You hold the racket in the "prompt position", just don't hold the racket tight yet, but keep the grip in continental. Now, turn your body to hit a backhand with your non-hitting hand holding the racket with the head pointing up as it should, let the grip roll easy in your hand, but don't change the position of your wrist from the "continental shape" yet. Once the racket head points behind, just stick your hand into "grabbing" the grip. That's the backhand grip. And in no time you'll be hitting good single handed backhand.
Of course, you've got to have proper footing. If you're already a tennis player, that shouldn't be a problem.
An acquaintance with whom I taught the technique used to play a two hander. After I told him the easy trick, he has since switched to a one hander (over 15 years now) and is now a tennis coach.
Easy, isn't it. A beautiful shot. Only not properly taught.
Continental that’s an old ass grip not topspin in that eastern is much better
@@hafadaze9046 Do you know what "Prompt position" is? I'm NOT TELLING to hit with continental. Please READ PROPERLY.
And to be successful with it, one must have an attacking game style. It never works for defensive players. Hence the latest version of Thiem barely can win matches, because he lacks his former aggression in his strokes, same goes with Wawrinka, Gasquet and Federer before he retired. You need lighting quick reflexes at the net, incredible hand skills overall and an overall great serve to be able to harness the advantages of a one hander, namely a low slice, more court coverage, more net coverage and a general quicker swing. All these turn to disadvantages if one is defensive. Tsitsipas could implement all these strategies succsessfully, as he has the skills necessary but he is too stubborn to change his defensive style, Mussetti also plays on any surface as though it were clay. This is why we do not have any one handed backhand in the top ten and I foresee that we will not have for a long time due to the overall defensive strategies that coaches and players employ nowadays.
The courts need to be slightly quicker or atleast balls need to be lighter. Even if you hit 90 mph forehands, your opponent can likely get to it because of how much the ball decelerates.
@@NN-zf7npyeah it only worked when back then same as serve and volley. Sad
I am not so sure if "barely" winning matched apply to Fed. He was off for more than a year and reached quarters of wimbledon with an injured knee. Actually doubling down on your point, the reason Fed wins even when injured is partly because of his court positioning which is a lot more brave and aggressive; almost refusing to step back. Of course he has the natural gift of being able to absorb pace and hitting on the rise more than most of his contemporaries
Some truth and some wrong here. Saying Tsitsipas and old fed have/had defensive styles is just plain wrong. The problem with Tsitsipas is mainly his flawed technique whether he hits topspin or backhand slices.
Such a beautiful shot the one handed backhand
Best Ever: Stan the Man. Literally made a career out of it.
Second: Fed
Third: Gasquet
Rest: Dimitrov, Almagro, Theim, Shapovalov, Tsitsipas, etc.
Gasquet's backhand is the best
I would ban the use of two-handed backhand for men
Have seen a lot of dumb comments but this one takes the cake
@@TheseHoesAreLoyal I'm sorry for you
This one is on par with a dude saying 2hbh is semi cheating
I would love this but it’s such a dumb thing lmao 😂
That would be hilarious because a lot of the current men have crappy two-handers.
beautiful one-hand BHs still work very well. Thiem, Wawrinka...
Poor Thiem. He hasn't been the same since the wrist injury.
Stan had the most technically correct and consistent single-handed backhand of anyone. Gasquet probably hit the fastest backhands ever, but not consistently. And his long windup took too much time to execute in most rallies. Federer has the most variety on the backhand side (and for me also the most aesthetically pleasing backhand). But he could be overpowered on that side by players like Stan or Gasquet. The only player that I could think of who could have challenged for greatest overall single-handed backhand would be Gustavo Kuerten. It would have been interesting to see him and Wawrinka both in their prime.
In the momth of Feb 2024, first time in the ATP ranking, there is no one handed backhand players in top 10. But, this art will come back again with more stability using the second hand.😊
Justine Henin's backhand is unrivalled
Richard's down the line backhand winner might be my second favorite shot in tennis, right behind Roger's inside-out forehand winner. However, if a match had to be won using only the backhand to save my life, I'd choose Stan's.
But.....Roger's backhand, to me, is the best one-hander as his versatility on that wing is second to none with his slices, angles, drop shots, and lob, IMO, he's got the most effective one-hander.
1. Wawrinka
2. Federer
3. Gasquet
They're all great, but only Gasquet had the ability to vaporize a backhand at such a speed that the opponent couldn't react to it at all. His winner against Murray at 2-0, 15-0 is the fastest backhand I've ever seen, and he does it so smoothly. His timing on that side was unsurpassed.
True but stan’s bh is faster on average among all of these i would say
Thank you👏🏽👏🏼💯💪🏽✌🏼
I thought UA-cam didn't allow uploading corn?
Wonderfull tenis 😍😍
Some more artistic and beautiful than others... You should include Henin, Rosewall, Almagro, Goolagong in the next vid
Almagro is in the video
@@Thebtfgame Oh is he? I was skipping Federer and Thiem and their ugly backhands, so I must have skipped him in the process by accident.
@@LuLu-nw6bifederer and thiem ugly bh’s ? That’s insane statement
@@Thebtfgamekuerten as well
@@LuLu-nw6bithiem yes but Federer fuck no that’s fundamental right there if u play tennis
Two handed bh is easier to learn. This is just matter of understanding that 2hb has flows and 1hdachanders need to use them. Low and weak balls quit difficult to hit from base line. But single handed backhand requires early preparations and less forgiving.
Amazing video. It is unfortunate though that none of Federer's 2017 Australian Open's backhands were included.
Forreal against Nadal is crazh
It's not art.
It's just a natural motion for the human body.
More natural than the 2 handed backhand.
The most impressive one is Almagro's shot. Not for the technical execution, but because hitting a one-handed backhand winner on clay, against Nadal's forehand... it's science fiction😂
I thought dual handed backhand grew more and more popular because kids start learning tennis at a very young age and single handed backhand requires quite a strong arm (it uses completely different muscles than the forehand) so they starts playing tennis with DHB and stick with it. To me it looks really strange to see such fit and muscled player like Alcaratz, Nadal or Djokovich use DHB... Anyway in a match between a DHB player and a SHB player, I will always side with the latter.
Single hander requires the arm which has a better control than for the double hander especially the elbow and the shoulder. Overall, double hander and single hander arms are both pretty much similar, and I would even argue that the double hander requires stronger forearm because most players use a continental grip on their double handed backhand, even though the non-dominant arm supports the swing. In contrast, with a single hander, your non-dominant arm allows for your dominant arm to swing freely by simply helping with the circular take-back motion which naturally generates the kinetic chain that can facilitate your dominant arm to drop right before the contact with the ball, and with an eastern grip (for most single handers), the forearm muscle isn't as much used as for continental group. For these reasons, you can clearly see that Roger's dominant arm's shoulder is, by proportion, very impressively built and broad both posteriorly and laterally compared to most double-handers, while his dominant arm overall is pretty slim, although it's insanely toned and has tremendous functional power. Roger's forearm is insane too which is an exception because his flick of the wrist is second to none, and I'm sure his wrist strength is like a truck. With a very strong shoulder, his dominant arm has that uncanny balance and smooth transition when he's serving, doing the trophy position better than almost anyone else. Meanwhile, his non-dominant arm is a twig as it should be, because with a built non-dominant arm, he wouldn't be able to rotate his left shoulder almost facing the baseline as he sets up his single-handed backhand.
Alcaraz, Djokovic, and Nadal all have monstrous forearms for that matter. And it may not be much, but Federer's shoulders are wider than Rafa's. And it shouldn't be surprising that the three players that you mentioned have well-developed and balanced muscles in both arms, especially Rafa who's actually a righty, because clearly their non-dominant arms are really important for a double-hander. Also, contrary to what you might think, Nadal and Djokovic in real life aren't exactly muscular, I saw a video of them that my friend took in 2021. Their muscles are greatly innervated and veinous and toned to the need of the right amount of functional power. They don't need big muscles like UFC fighters or American football players.
I played tennis for about 12 years now with a single-hander all my life, and my left shoulder is hilariously weak. I can only do one full rep of 15-20 kg max of dumbbell shoulder press with my left arm.
No more one handed backhand players in the Top ten
Yup tsitsipas too weak
Game with weakness has more flare and continuous improvement than one dimensional players
Roger is art
Where is Pete sampras one hand backhand?
Now there are no top 10 players with one handed backhand
Yeah tsitsipas is ass
Missing Guga Kuerten there 🇧🇷
The onehanded backhand top players are gonna go extinct.
No they’re not lol just not on top 10 anymore but there are still one handers
Players like novak wouldn't have survived if he had a single hander...infact he wouldn't have won even 1 slam or even a atp250 title..considering all this, its incredible how roger reached 20 slams in 20 yrs with his aggressive gameplay...player like novak even with a safer gameplay and two hander took 18 yrs to reach 20 slams...
@tommyjerry5851 The game has changed, and the rate of adaptation doesn't necessarily match the rate of changes. The gradual decline of the one-hander is testament to that.
@tommyjerry5851margin for error is more for a single hander than a double hander and it can easily wear down over 5 sets...on faster courts ,single hander can be of huge advantage but now the atp tour has courts where 95٪ of it play slow to medium paced...that's the reason in last 2 decades, the number of single handers count has reduced compared to that of 80's
Do you even know that Federer as a kid started learning the single handed backhand first and then also tried the double-hander? He even tried to play in a tournament as a kid with his friend in doubles attempting to hit with a double-handed backhand, but said it never suited him. Players adapt to either a single handed backhand or a double handed backhand depending on their compatibility, coaching, etc. "Players like Novak wouldn't have survived if he had a single hander" is one of the dumbest, most illiterate and most baseless comments I've ever seen.
@@TheseHoesAreLoyal same roger once told he wished to have a double hander when he couldn't face high topspin balls from rafa...if a player like rafa never existed, roger would have been happy slicing his backhand...only when it became a liability, he changed his technique very late in his career where he took the ball so early in 2017 and doing that on a consistent basis needs an incredible amount of skill to pull off especially for a single hander
@@vijayendranvijay4538 did you read my comment? Federer, Djokovic, Rafa, and countless number of other players didn't have an option when getting their backhand techniques down. Federer simply couldn't hit a two-handed backhand to save his life. Same with Djoko and Rafa, they couldn't hit a single-hander. You start with what you pick up naturally, and you end up with it for the rest of your career. Stop trying to come up with excuses for Federer's losing h2h against Rafa.
yuh
Shapo's BH is so ugly sometimes lol
bye bye.
Tsistipas fault
He was top 10 for like 5 years blame Dimitrov😭
dimitrov backhand so weak
the only one handed backhand that looks good other than the slice is a well executed backhanded overhead. two handed backhand > single handed backhand.
2hbh should have never been allowed