DOHA: For the first time since the ATP rankings started 50-years ago, there are no singlehanded backhands in the top-10 this week. The onehanded shot, a vanishing denomination on the Tour, may just be fading away.
A pity, given that it is indeed a shot of rare beauty, underlined by Roger Federer not so long ago. China\u2019s Zhang Zhizhen, who scalped an exponent of the single-handed backhand in seventh-seed Lorenzo Musetti in the Qatar ExxonMobil Open first round, enjoys watching the shot in full flight.
\u201cThe one-hand backhand has a little bit gone out of the tennis stage, less people are learning one-hand backhand, especially people my age,\u201d the 27-year-old said, adding, \u201cWhen we start tennis nobody is telling you to play one-hand backhand.\u201d Richard Gasquet, a wildcard entrant here, ranked as high as No.7, acknowledged that the two-hander may be the shot of the day.
\u201cThe future is more with two — very powerful, very flat,\u201d said the Frenchman, whose singlehander crackled in Doha. \u201cMany players have this shot. I hope in the future many players can go to the top 10 with one-hand (backhand). It\u2019s important for the game. I think it\u2019s more technical, the one-handed backhand.\u201d Andrey Rublev, the world No.5, weighed in on the pros and cons of the technique.
\u201cSome shots are more difficult, but from another point of view, some shots are more easy with the one-hand backhand,\u201d the Russian said. \u201cLike acceleration or opening the court is more easy with one hand, but some balls, if you play high, is more easy to step in and to play with two hands.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t think there is better or worse in this. If you\u2019re one-handed, you prefer that,\u201d the 26-year-old said.
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of good players with twohand (backhand), a lot of good players with one-hand, a lot of good players with no backhand at all and a really good forehand. I\u2019m one of them.\u201d Zhang, the China No.1, nicknamed \u2018Triple Z\u2019, said the two-hander has given his game greater stability.
\u201cI feel more confident playing twohanded backhand,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cI love to watch the one-hand backhand, it is very nice, the swing is smooth.\u201d
When the first edition of the ATP Rankings was released in August 1973, nine of the world\u2019s top-10 played a one-handed backhand. This week there are only two players — No.11 Stefanos Tsitsipas and No.13 Grigor Dimitrov –who have one-handed backhands in the top 25. Karen Khachanov, the world No.17, hasn\u2019t given what\u2019s quickly becoming a lost art, a thought.
\u201cEverything happens for the first time at some point,\u201d the 27-year-old said. \u201cIt\u2019s been quite a few years that there were onehanded backhand players in the top-10, but I think nowadays this is the reality. Sooner or later though somebody with a one-handed backhand will be back in the top-10 also.\u201d<\/div>\n