When Stefanos Tsitsipas dropped out of the world’s top 10 in February this year, tennis purists mourned the final nail in the coffin of the one-handed backhand, once the sport’s signature shot. It had carried Pete Sampras and Roger Federer to 15 Wimbledon titles between them and was the weapon of choice for Stan Wawrinka when he captured three majors. Federer described the absence of one-handers in the top 10 as a “dagger” to the sport.
“I felt it. That one was personal. I didn’t like that,” 20-time major winner Federer told GQ magazine when the top 10 was stripped of one-handed backhands for the first time in more than 50 years.
“But at the same time, it makes the one-handers – Pete Sampras, Rod Laver, me – it makes us special as well that we’ve carried the torch, or the flag or whatever, for as long as we did. “So I love seeing players with one-handers like Stan (Wawrinka) and Richard Gasquet and Tsitsipas. Dominic Thiem has a wonderful one.
” At the moment, only two men in the top 20 have a one-handed backhand – Tsitsipas and Grigor Dimitrov who has since nudged his way back to 10 in the world. Dominic Thiem, at the 2020 US Open, was the last man to win a Grand Slam with the one-handed backhand. The 30-year-old has been plagued by wrist injuries ever since and will retire this year.
However, there is hope in the shape of Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti, who has emerged as the man to have removed Federer’s “dagger” with his run to the Wimbledon se.