A dying art in tennis

In the vast history of tennis, there has been a very special breed of players, a breed that includes players like Rod Laver, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg, Pete Sampras, Boris Becker, Patrick Rafter, Gustavo Kuerten and now Roger Federer, that has made heads turn and fashioned some unforgettable tennis memories. In fact, we can also add a few more current players to this elite list such as Richard Gasquet, Tommy Robredo, Fernando Gonzalez, Philipp Kohlschreiber and Stainslas Wawrinka. But, the list just about ends there.

For those of you wondering how I have left out players like Bjorn Borg, Mats Wilander, Andre Agassi, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal from this list, I would like to clarify that by hand-picking certain players starting from the great Rod Laver up to Roger Federer, I did not mean to make a list of the greatest players of all time. Certainly, the fact that I have included even players like Gasquet and Robredo who have never won a Major should amply prove that.

So if all you tennis fans look at the players whom I have referred to in the first para of this article, you would be able to read my mind. Yes, you guessed it right. The list is one of players who have had single-handed backhands. If you analyse the list a little carefully, you you will know that many of the players who adopted this method of play have also held the numero uno status among their then contemporaries for a long time.

One can easily establish how dominant single-handed backhanders have been by looking at the reign atop the world rankings by the likes of Ivan Lendl, Pete Sampras and last but not the least, Roger Federer. Now with Federer already turning 30 last year, the decade to follow will almost surely be deprived of a single-handed backhander as World No.1. Bernard Tomic and Milos Raonic, who are considered as the future of tennis as of now, both have two-handed backhands.

Even if a youngster with a single-handed backhand has to come up, it would take a Herculean effort by him as already there are the Nadals and Djokovics of the world who relentlessly strive hard for the top ranking day in and day out. It is evident today that the art of the single-handed backhand in men’s tennis is facing extinction. Whichever new player comes to the forefront from any part of the world, he is seen to play with a double-handed backhand.

90 out of 100 players today turn out to be double-handed backhanders. The style of play has changed drastically in tennis. The players of the present era prefer to torture themselves by tirelessly running from one corner of the baseline to the other, engaging in long rallies, and so they have no other option but to practice backhands with two hands which gives more solidity to their groundstrokes.

A single-handed backhand, though stylish, does not look feasible for the current generation of players who like to hit at least 20 shots before fetching a point. As baseline play becomes more dominant, so does the number of double-handed backhanders. Baseliners require control in playing long rallies, if they play with a one-handed backhand the chances of them making unforced errors are higher, to say the least. A single-handed backhand is usually the hallmark of a player who loves to finish the points quickly by hitting winners rather than craving for rallies. Becker, Edberg, Sampras – for them the motive was never long baseline exchanges. Instead, they tried to finish points by approaching the net whenever possible. The one-handed backhand which they possesses was a stroke not suitable for a baseline game which requires an error-free approach.

In the times of Becker and, subsequently, Sampras, the one-handed backhand did at least have some utility, as there were very few baseliners back then. But nowadays, with the copious flow of young talented players who are baseliners, I really doubt if anyone would aspire to get coached with a one-handed backhand. You need to be really brave and intrepid if you opt for tennis as a profession armed with a style of play that contains a one-hander. You have got to be really good at hitting your backhand if you go for that approach.

Whenever we watched the super “slow mos” of Roger Federer or Pete Sampras hitting a winner off their backhand, it gave us immense joy. In fact, Roger’s backhand looked like a thing of beauty in his early playing days because the lack of fleet-footed baseliners during the initial stage of his career enabled him to hit a staggering amount of winners with his backhand. But the situation soon changed with people like Nadal, Djokovic and Murray arriving in the tennis mainstream. The unforgiving baseline tennis which they play coupled with the unbelievable running and court coverage really put Roger on the backfoot, forcing him to hit more shots off his backhand. Roger is, as you can see nowadays, unable to keep up with the baseline exchanges with his one-handed backhand, as the errors start flowing off it eventually. And if something like that can happen to a player who was thought to have a perfect, all-court game, then it can happen to anyone.

The struggles of single-handed backhanders to cope with modern baseline topspin rallies should have taught all the youngsters to completely dispense with the one-hander. With a double-handed backhand, a player gets ti extend the rallies comfortably, while keeping his errors to a minimum at the same time. So, for most players now, the one-handed backhand has become, by default, a taboo. Previously, one big swing with a single-handed backhand was enough to hit a winner against your opponent. But nowadays, it requires many such swings to neutralize the exchanges against your double-handed opponents before you can set up to hit a winner, and even then the winner doesn’t always come off, leaving unforced errors printed against your name.

Today, the only time a player plays his backhand with one hand is when he wants to slice the ball, the way Tomic and Alexandr Dolgopolov do with regularity. Most double-handed backhanders keep the slice as a surprise weapon.

Sadly, it seems the one-handed backhand is soon going to be shelved permanently in tennis. The elegance of the single-hander may be lost completely in another five years’ time, with the power game becoming the dominant style of choice among players of both the sexes. Tennis has changed over the years, but it has led to the death of the one-handed backhand.