Stefanos Tsitsipas dropped out of the top 10 of the ATP rankings on Monday, February 19, to leave no one-handed backhand players in the top 10 for the first time. Andy Roddick talked about this piece of tennis history and why the technique is losing favor with today’s players. This is even as Roger Federer is still an icon to look upto for many players.
Tsitsipas fell to World No.11 after Alex de Minaur rose to World No.9. This ended the streak of having at least a solitary one-handed backhand player in the top 10.
The one-handed backhand was a common shot among the older generations. However, it was Roger Federer who made it globally famous, making it a poster of his elegant gameplay.
In Episode 4 of the Served with Andy Roddick podcast, the American star and journalist Jon Wertheim discussed the diminishing popularity of the shot. The latter was not in favor of the one-handed backhand. He said it may look pretty and aesthetic, feeding fans’ ‘optic bias’, but it is not practical or effective.
Roddick agreed, saying one-handed backhands look ‘really f***ing cool’. However, he said players are not going to get extra ‘coolness points’ for hitting this shot instead of the more practical two-handed backhand. He mentioned how changed polyester strings and slower courts have changed tennis. He said these changes facilitated more powerful and topspin-heavy hitting.
Andy Roddick said only a couple of players during the early days of his career could hit strong backhands. However, by the time he retired, he claimed ‘80%’ of the field had evolved into hitting powerful two-handed backhands. The 2003 US Open champion believed the conversation over the one-handed backhand dying out was long due. Only Federer, whom he called a ‘supernatural talent’, was saving the technique from fading away.
Strong two-handed backhand hitters like Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, and Jannik Sinner, who prefer a fast-paced game, are dominating tennis right now. Roddick believed in such a scenario, no coach or parent would instruct their child to play a one-handed backhand. He reiterated that the shot looks cool, which makes its death sadder.
After Stefanos Tsitsipas, Grigor Dimitrov is the biggest name to employ the one-handed backhand. Lorenzo Musetti, whom Jon Wertheim named, is the only high-ranking upcoming youngster to use this shot. Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem are two famous proponents but are way past their primes.
With a lack of proficient idols, kids will understandably not take up the one-handed backhand. Additionally, some other players using the dying shot are Chris Eubanks, Dan Evans, and Denis Shapovalov to name a few.
