As some of you may remember they were on really obscure topics. Well,
Today, we're talking hitting technique because my sister quizzed me about what I remembered about Boris 'boom boom' Becker and his single-handed backhand and where I placed it in the long history of single-handed backhands.
The Top 10 Best Single-handed backhands:
1. Pete Sampras
2. John McEnroe
3. Martina Navratilova
4. Roger Federer
5. Ivan Lendl
6. Boris Becker
7. Henri LeConte
8. Todd Woodbridge
9. Stefan Edberg
10. Ken Rosewall
And I'm sure I missed somebody. Like Elliot 'URGH!! Telcher.
In this day and age, you'd think more players would be hitting single-handed backhands with these modern racquets, but clearly it ain't so. When you see Marat Safin, a strapping 6'5" tonking back double-handers, you think, "what a limp-wristed sook".
A little more in the way of an explanation of this list...
Pete Sampras by far had the most clean technique of anybody I've ever seen. He modeled his stroke on Rod Laver's, who I did not get to see play in his prime (I ain't that old). He would line his shoulder and elbow and come right over the top of the ball, swinging in line, more with the vertical axis of the racquet rather than across it - A truly remarkable style of hitting backhands. It's not easy to do, because you have to see the ball early, get there, get your shoulder in line and crush the ball.
John McEnroe too emulated Rod Laver's technique and so he too comes through the axis of the racquet, more than he crosses the face. The interesting thing about McEnroe's take-back was how he dropped his wrist and gave himself the option of hitting across or down the line of the court, very late on the ball. He also had tremendous balance even when fielding the most unlikely of shots.
Martina Navratilova was one of those hitters who just banged, nudged and played the ball beautifully. Raised on wooden racquets, her technique applied to modern racquets yielded amazing results. Truly a gifted player all around. Okay, she was a dyke and a crazy Cold-War Era Czech and all that, but she knew what she was doing. One of the safest shots to watch was a Navratilova backhand.
Roger Federer: The best player since Pete Sampras; may be the best ever; except I don't know how he'd play with older racquets. Yet the facts are, Sampras never conquered clay, while this guy is fantastic on any surface, playing almost any style of player. Once again, great technique founded on good, solid balance and a sweet swing. Seems to see the ball and get to it very early, looking like he's got all the time in the world.
Ivan Lendl was a machine. He set match-length records playing US Open finals against Mats Wilander. In other words, he could keep hitting the same shots nearly all day. He was the man who turned tennis into an endurance sport through his ruthless application of repetition. He could hit winners off your shots easily, but he made a point of making you hit more shots to wear you out. Did tennis a big favour y staying away after retirement.
Boris Becker had a great swashbuckling backhand. It's hardly remembered because he preferred to go around and use his cannon of a forehand over his swashbuckling backhand, but all the same he had great technique with his backhand. He could hit all the angles and hit over, flat and under with equal control. He beat Lendl with his ground-strokes from the back of the court and was happy to do it that way. He stopped the machine dead in its tracks. 'nuff said. A lesser known fact is he had great disguise as to whether he was going to come over or under the ball. You couldn't tell from the take-back.
Henri LeConte: This is the first contentious name on the list. Why this guy who never won a Grand Slam? Because he was one of the best flat-ball hitters I've ever seen. On his best days, you dreamed of hitting the ball as cleanly as this guy hit them. He didn't have too many of those days in a row, but in his prime, he dismembered Bjorn Borg and Ivan Lendl, all on the back of his great eye-hand coordination. the man had no mental game, but he had immense touch. And he was irrational and crazy (as all the French players seem to be), which made him totally unpredictable, probably even to himself.
Todd Woodbridge: McEnroe once said his technique was 'almost too cute'. Well, kinda'. That Australian orthodox technique with the right-angled wrist isn't easy to do, but this guy just did it, picture perfect, over and over again and made it look so easy. In fact, of all the Aussie players of the last 30 years, his single-handed backhand technique is the best by a country mile - beats Rafter, Cash, Fitzgerald, Edmonson and Warwick, all of them.
Stefan Edberg: Bucking the trend at the time, he was the lone Swede with a single-hander, who won and won and won. Had a great rivalry with Boris Becker which were magical matches to watch. Great slice and approach thing he had going as well as a cross-court topspin thing he used to uncork. Probably the last grass court player to really work the angles in the old way.
Ken Rosewall: The other single great Aussie backhand that I actually saw. The man was born to hit backhands. Even when he was well past it, he'd find the perfect line to line up a shot and unleash this picture-perfect swing. He was the text book.
WORST PROFESSIONAL BACKHAND EVER: Belongs to Mark Woodforde.
His two hander was so bad that Goran Ivanisevic once remarked that he and his son would sit around watching tennis, "laughing at Woodforde's shitty backhand". Now that might sound cruel, until you actually see it:
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