Roger Federer, during an ATP match. /
Álex Corretja analyzes one of the Swiss player’s signature shots, a combination of dance, speed and aim
“Federer’s backhand is… exquisite,” Álex Corretja replies after a few moments of waiting in which he tries to find the right adjective to explain one of the Swiss’s many geniuses. It is difficult to understand and explain Federer’s elegance and talent without his one-handed backhand, one of the most eye-catching shots that captures the viewer’s attention for its combination of dance, speed and aim. There is no shot more beautiful than a one-handed down the line backhand. In a tennis increasingly turned towards the two-handed backhand, more powerful, easy to interpret and that allows to defend more easily, Federer decided, when he was still very small, to follow in the footsteps of his idols, Stefan Edberg and later of Pete Sampras, and also of his mother, Lynette, who used this stroke, and opting for the one-handed backhand.
“Federer’s backhand is exquisite. It is a blow with a lot of plasticity, especially due to the variant of the sliced backhand, very practical and very dangerous”, adds Corretja, who also had a nice one-handed backhand and who now works as a commentator on Eurosport, a channel that broadcasts the Laver Cup in Spain exclusively. Corretja insists on how the development of the cut has allowed him to face the great strikers of this era. “That shot makes it very dangerous against players who play very straight, very aggressive. Especially the ones with two-handed backhands.”
To talk about the technique, the positioning and the footwork of the Helvetian is essential. «He is almost always very well turned with his shoulders, with his right leg in front, with the head of the racket very high and with his elbow quite stretched. Technically the grip is very straight”, explains Corretja.
In addition, Federer has a disadvantage with the backhand. His dominant eye is the left one, something that only happens in 30% of the population. This has helped him develop a lethal forehand, one of the best in history, at the cost of having a worse one-handed backhand than his peers, such as Richard Gasquet and Stan Wawrinka, who have a better backhand than a forehand.
To alleviate this deficiency, which became more apparent with the emergence of Rfa Nadal, who punished Federer’s backhand with high balls that forced him to hit uncomfortably over his shoulder, the Swiss took a step forward in 2017 and increased his aggressiveness level. “Federer had a little trouble moving his wrist on the backhand, but then he made that change in 2017. He started hitting the ball when it went up, instead of waiting for it to go over his shoulder, because that’s where most suffered. He got it thanks to moving very well. That was one of the big changes for him, going for the ball instead of waiting for it. He stretched out his arm much more, stuck out his chest more and also moved his hand more. That made it possible for him to find many more angles », clarifies Corretja, who won the two occasions that he faced Federer.
The one-handed backhand, in extinction
But this change did not come until his 2017 resurgence, when in just one year he conquered the last three Grand Slams of his career. For almost 20 of him he was struggling, especially on clay, so many experts considered that Federer’s successes were weighed down by his backhand. “More than a burden, it is that, in modern times, it is evident that the one-handed backhand has to be excellent so that you can compete against the best, because people are taller, they serve you with more spin on the backhand, they play very deep, very flat. To counteract those blows from the rivals you have to have a lot of precision. That’s why the backhand slice was so important to him. At the same time, that made him also have to run much more, because it is a defensive blow in most cases with which to slow down the game, with which you are rarely going to win the point », reflects Corretja.
The one-handed backhand is on the verge of extinction and there are only five players in the ‘top 100’ who execute this shot, none of them of the depth of the legendary Swiss player. «Federer is an icon of world sport, he is someone who crosses the barriers of tennis. Wherever he goes, people admire him, respect him, venerate him and it is because he has earned it. His elegance, his charisma, his personality, have made him someone very loved in the world of sports and he leaves an infinite legacy. He will remain a myth for the rest of his life. Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Roger Federer… They have marked an era and will continue to mark it. Federer is not going to do anything that is not a success,” Corretja concludes.
