Building The Perfect Tennis Player Part 3 - The Backhand

First topic message reminder :

Right folks what we have is the Sampras serve and the Nadal forehand. We are nearly there. What we have now is the backhand. This will be interesting. DHBH v SHBH, Flat BH v Slice BH. Who for you is the master of the BH. The new breed in Djokovic, Murray, Nadal and Federer? Or do past masters such as Connors, McEnroe or Borg get your attention? Please nominate below.

Settle down oldies

laverfan wrote:Danny... are you also in the 'bush' like KR (double-posting) or is it an iStutter?

PS: Or is it the whip...

I'm actually in Rio, Brazil with my former fiancé who 2 weeks ago was promoted to the position of Mrs Danny_1982.

We're on the outskirts of Rio at her family home and the wifi isn't the best. Hence the double post!

I hear the weather in UK is pretty terrible, which makes me feel guilty to report it's absolutely glorious here!

congrats danny!!!    

Cheers LS.

Nice one, Danny! Congratulation to you and Mrs_1982!

Laverfan - I don't know what's happened to Socal. I hope he didn't do anything silly following Novak's USO defeat to Rafa. I certainly miss his unique use of the metaphor!

Cheers Murdoch.

Shame socal isn't around anymore. I enjoyed a lot of his posts and debating with him. His assessment of the Murray Djokovic rivalry was always pretty fair and interesting.

If Nadal's forhand has been selected as the best then I don't see how we cannot select Djokovic's backhand as the best. As it's the only backhand that has come close to matching Nadal's forehand, sometimes even on the clay.

Some interesting discussions. Clearly there are more technical aspects to what constitues the best backhand than for the forehand - single v double hander, how important slice is, consistency v explosiveness. The answer to all being somewhat dependent on era and conditions.

Can I throw one further name into the discussions, with regard to single handed backhands:
Justine Henin.

No way should someone of her physique have been able to handle the Williams sisters weight of shot with a SHBH, but for it to be her outstanding shot...

Timing, execution, ability to modify her grip to deal with low and high bouncing balls. Extraordinary skill.

I generally agree though with the consensus that (in nothing other than chronological order) Connors, Edberg, Agassi and Djokovic stand ahead of the pack.

I wouldn't rate Edberg's BH above Kuerten's - best topspin SHBH I ever saw.
Slice? I'd put that in Rosewall's camp.

I remember when I asked you one time about Guga and when you answered it very informatively it got me thinking after you said something along the lines of "if guga were playing today rafa would have broken down his bh".
So is it fair to say guga's shbh was the best as he did not have to deal with this wicked spin? WOuld it still be the best if he was say 10 years younger? Obvs its just conjecture but it didn't receive such a battering as sh's do today against rafa right?

Or is that an unfair question as the yardstick of a shbh shouldn't be its ability to withstand such a barage that nadal's opponents do on that wing?

I don't remember saying that TBH.

Kuerten had a 3-0 record over Bruguera, all on clay and Sergi never won a set nor won more than 4 games per set. And yet Sergi hit his FH with an average of 3300rpm, around the same as Nadal. Kuerten had no trouble with high spin, his BH had a western grip so he could handle high balls. Sure Nadal is a clay prodigy, we all know that, but think he would have found Kuerten a different proposition. BUT...you say, Sergi was right handed!

Ok, look at Muster then.. another high spinner, high powered endurance player but left handed. The H2H there? 3-0 to Kuerten again...including a win at RG97. The same year he beat Bruguera too.

Kuerten had a superlative BH, he could hit SHBHs all day long, that wing wouldn't break down back then...Muster couldn't do it, Bruguera couldn't...Federer couldn't even in 2004...it would have still been hard to break down today so the point is I've not seen a more impregnable or strong SHBH as Kuerten's.