In the last game of his match against Taylor Fritz, Stan Wawrinka, 40, barely returned a serve from the powerful American, 28. Fritz drove him to Wawrinka’s forehand, and then persisted with the Swiss’s backhand. There are five one-handed reversals from Wawrinka, one after the other. You have to look for and watch that video because it is a piece of the past that is collapsing before our eyes, and also a better past: the one that remembers the distant and elegant hegemony of the one-handed backhand.
When he sees the ball coming, Wawrinka makes a wide shoulder turn close to 90 degrees with respect to the net, so that his back is partially facing the opponent while his head remains fixed following the trajectory of the ball; During this turn, raise the racket above head level, with your elbow high and your wrist relaxed. Keeps the arm separate from the torso to allow an arc of swing wide, perform one or two adjustment steps and plant the left foot in front before impact to fix the body well. In slow motion, a very brief pause can be seen in the high position, with shoulders closed and body loaded, which helps stabilize the execution time of the blow.
It is a very violent setback. In the rally against Fritz, Wawrinka increases the speed of the ball (and the moans) until he plays a winning backhand, directly hitting a scream that raises the audience, driving them crazy. Fritz doesn’t even see her. It was the last major setback for Wawrinka, who began to say goodbye to the circuit at the Australian Open. He is the winner of three Grand Slams (2014 to Nadal in Australia, 2015 to Djokovic in Paris, 2016 to Djokovic in New York).
Ten years ago, the Swiss tennis player was already the subject, he and his setback, of a study in Eurosport by Laurent Vergne. “If beauty is a subjective criterion, it is hardly associated with the two-handed backhand. However, this special gesture that is the one-handed backhand has become scarce to a degree never achieved in the history of this sport. If Wawrinka’s masterful triumph had acquired the characteristics of a great serve or a forehand stroke, it would not leave such a strong mark, since these are the most recurrent strengths of the 21st century tennis player.”
In today’s professional tennis, the one-handed backhand is already a statistical exception. On the men’s circuit, only seven players in the top 100 use this shot regularly. Among them, only one is in the top ten: Lorenzo Musetti (5). In the top 50 there are five specialists: in addition to Musetti, Denis Shapovalov (23), Stefanos Tsitsipas (35), Daniel Altmaier (44) and Grigor Dimitrov (45). On the women’s circuit, the presence is residual: only two players within the top 100 use the one-handed backhand: Tatjana Maria (42) and Viktorija Golubic (83).
Since 2007, 19 years ago, there has been no female number one with a one-handed backhand: it was Justine Henin. Since 2018, eight years ago, there has been no male number one with a one-handed backhand: Roger Federer. Seven men and two women remain in the top 100.
This classic technical gesture has gone from being the norm to becoming an elite rarity. But he will survive. There are players whose coordination and body structure are better suited to one hand than two: forcing them would be unnatural. In each generation profiles like this will continue to appear. Because, well learned, for a certain style of play, recognizable in Wawrinka himself and Federer, it is more valuable to move or to change the cut. And because when everyone looks similar, a different gesture introduces confusion: and the public, like great coaches, does not seek to copy the average, but rather what makes a player unique.
