Top 4 Current Male Players With Best One Handed Backhand

Stefanos Tsitsipas

The Australian Open semifinalist has been one of the hottest stories of the ATP this year. Stefanos Tsitsipas has broken into the Top 10 in the ATP rankings and is now fighting for important titles.

The Greek has a barrage of shots in his armory. But his he best known for the One Handed Backhand which h has come to the youngster’s rescue in important matches. Tsitsipas with his backhand draws much more similarity to a young Roger Federer than any other player at the ATP tour currently.

One of Tsitsipas’s advantages while hitting the backhand with a devastating effect is his height. The 6 feet 4 inch tall Greek hits the backhand with a full swing and is able to create a loop out of it. The way he handled Nadal forehand with his backhand at Madrid Open was one of the important reasons for his victory over the Spaniard

Roger Federer

Even at the age of 37, Federer is able to create magic with his backhand. He has been a torchbearer of hitting one handed and yet creating the desired effect. It is one of the important features of Federer’s poetic game style.

Roger himself admits that his game has borrowed features of his 3 idols who are Pete Sampras, Borris Becker and Stefan Edberg. All 3 of them used to have a one handed backhand which they played in the 1990s.

In Federer’s comeback year of 2017, it was this backhand which paved way for his astonishing success especially against Rafa Nadal in the Australian Open final of 2017. Federer also uses the backhand chip slice as well as passing shot very accurately to draw errors from his opponents.

However, one of the few weaknesses of the Federer’s backhand is its vulnerability against left-handed players. This has been strategically exploited by Nadal over the years during his battles with the Swiss maestro.

Dominic Thiem

The Austrian superstar is one of the biggest names in tennis presently. He is known to hit his shots with brute force, with the one handed backhand being the trademark of his game.

The most outstanding ability of Dominic Thiem is to hit his backhand with so much speed that it can prove to be a winner from any position.

Thiem is among the few players who even managed to trouble Nadal on Clay with his laser sharp backhand passes hit with electric pace. What is more admiring is that Thiem can hit more winners from his backhand compared to the forehand wing.

The Austrian used to hit the backhander with two hands in the early stage of his career. He later switched to one handed as he was able to generate more pace and spin that way. His backhand is famously called by his fellow players as, ‘the Rocket’, for its sheer speed and flat trajectory.

Stan Wawrinka

There are few areas in his game where Stan Wawrinka outscores his fellow Swiss great Roger Federer. The One Hand Backhand is certainly among them. The effortless, free flowing Wawrinka backhand is a thing of beauty.

What is more important is the clinical efficiency and accuracy with which Wawrinka hits his backhand. Such is the confidence of the Swiss in this shot that he even pounces upon the serves of his opponents with his backhand.

‘Stan the Man’ has the ability to hit his backhand both cross court and down the line as well as vary the shot at the last moment to deceive his opponents. The most famous casualty of Stan’s backhand has been Novak Djokovic, who had no answers to Wawrinka in the Roland Garros 2015 and US Open 2016 finals.

The Wawrinka backhand is a mix of power and placement, beauty and brute force. It has helped the Swiss to win his 3 Grand Slams and countless important matches.