By Martyn Herman
LONDON (Reuters) -For tennis purists the sight of a single-handed backhand pinging off the centre of a racket is a joy to behold but it is becoming rare and Grigor Dimitrov, one of the best exponents of the shot, believes it could soon vanish.
The 34-year-old former world number three describes hitting a one-handed backhand as like hitting the jackpot and the shot has helped him to career earnings of more than $30 million.
He used it to great effect on Saturday as he beat Austria’s Sebastian Ofner 6-3 6-4 7-6(0) in front of an appreciative Court Three crowd, reaching the last 16 of Wimbledon for the fifth time with his 100th Grand Slam match win.
But with eight-times Wimbledon champion Roger Federer, Richard Gasquet and Dominic Thiem all retired and Stan Wawrinka in the twilight of his career, the single-handed backhand club has a shrinking membership.
Of the current top 20, only Italian Lorenzo Musetti does not have a double-fisted backhand, the stroke that most juniors these days are taught to hit. It is even rarer in the women’s where a double-hander now seems almost obligatory, although the slice is still played single-handed.
“The backhand with one hand is the same thing over and over again. Once you hit it, it feels like jackpot,” Bulgarian Dimitrov, the only man left in the singles with a one-handed backhand, told reporters.
“Listen, I think over the course of the next years we will see it less and less. That’s just how it is. The tennis has sped up so much. Everybody is hitting harder, stronger, off both wings. There’s not enough time.”
Putting two hands on the racket to drive a backhand enables players to be more stable through the shot and deal with higher balls and for many it is a simpler, more repeatable action.
Dimitrov, who will face top-seeded Italian Jannik Sinner next, said he would never change.
“I’m always forever going to be a one-handed guy, whatever I say. I’m so biased that it’s probably the worst question to ask me,” he told reporters. “You can still capitalize on that. Of course, there are many strengths, especially on a grass court.
“I would say being able to hit a decent slice on grass court sets you up right away with the next shot.
“Everyone keeps saying it’s a lost art of it. But it’s not really that lost because if you manage to navigate that, let’s say, wing for a one-hander, you’ll be able to get a hold of it.
“Do you have to work way more with your body? Yes.”
Swedish great Bjorn Borg was a trailblazer of the double-handed backhand as he won 11 Grand Slam titles in the 1970s and early 80s while American Jimmy Connors made it his trademark, but in those it was a rarity in men’s tennis.
Now it has come full circle.
When Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas dropped out of the ATP’s top 10 to leave it devoid of single-handed backhands, Swiss maestro Federer described it as a painful moment.
“That’s a dagger right there,” he said in March. “I felt that one. That one was personal. I didn’t like that.”
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; editing by Clare Fallon)
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