what grip do the pros use?

[heycal]

Does anyone have a list of what forehand grip today's pros use or happen to know that information? Curious to know what particular FH grip is used by such folks as:

Federer
Blake
Ljubijec
Berdych
Sharapova
Henin
Murray
Petrova
Gonzalez
Roddick
Davydenko
Haas
Dementieva
Vaidosova
S. Williams
V. Williams
Nalbandian

And any other current players. Anyone know?

[tricky]

From Yandell's articles:

Eastern grips
3/3: Sampras, Henman
3.5/3: Federer, Ancic

SW
4/3: Agassi, Safin, Blake, Kiefer
4/3.5: Gonzo, Nalby, Coria, Hewitt, Ferrero, Kuerten
4/4: Roddick, Robredo

Western
4.5/4.5: Nadal, Grosjean

Brilliant articles explaining grip and how it dictates your stance choices and what balls you can hit back.

[noobplayer]

does it matter what grip players use? use the one most comfortable for u. i recall that j mcenroe used continental grip for forehand. imo, eastern and semiwestern all the most popular grips

[tricky]

Yeah, I don't think anybody in their right mind would start out with the continential grip now But I think grip matters because it affects the swing shape that's most comfortable for you. I just think it's interesting that Fed has maybe a flatter swing path than Agassi.

[heycal]

Originally Posted by tricky

From Yandell's articles:

Eastern grips
3/3: Sampras, Henman
3.5/3: Federer, Ancic

SW
4/3: Agassi, Safin, Blake, Kiefer
4/3.5: Gonzo, Nalby, Coria, Hewitt, Ferrero, Kuerten
4/4: Roddick, Robredo

Western
4.5/4.5: Nadal, Grosjean

Brilliant articles explaining grip and how it dictates your stance choices and what balls you can hit back.

Thanks. Where is Yandell's article? And what do the numbers beside the player's names mean?

[grizzly4life]

i wasn't sure what the #'s mean either...

i think they have to do with the hand position.. notice the numbers go up, so it has to do with the bevels... sampras/henman palm is square to racquet, nadal is under the racquet (or something like that).

article sounds interesting.... my forehand has been screwed up before because stance didn't match the grip. and it wasn't that easy to fix. i often have that problem when i haven't played for a month.

[tricky]

Yeah the mumbers reflect bevels. Bevel numbers are shown here

http://www.tennisgeometrics.com/Grips_tennis.html

The first number reflects where the index knuckle should be, and that'll probably be enough to get you going. The second is harder to explain without an actual picture. But it translates roughly to how much of the rest of your hand is on that bevel.

The articles are at tennisplayer and for pay. Worth it BTW. Even if you don't play, those article help you appreciate the pro game so much more.

[Say Chi Sin Lo]

federer uses a eastern grip...? That's shocking

[tricky]

I guess you can call it "Eastern-ish." He closes his racquet face, which is weird for the Eastern backswing, and lets the wrist fly.

[heycal]

Originally Posted by tricky

From Yandell's articles:

Eastern grips
3/3: Sampras, Henman
3.5/3: Federer, Ancic

SW
4/3: Agassi, Safin, Blake, Kiefer
4/3.5: Gonzo, Nalby, Coria, Hewitt, Ferrero, Kuerten
4/4: Roddick, Robredo

Western
4.5/4.5: Nadal, Grosjean

Brilliant articles explaining grip and how it dictates your stance choices and what balls you can hit back.

Do the names go in order from Eastern to Western, meaning Sampras and Henman are very Eastern, Federer/Anic less so, then Agassi, Safin, and Blake are semi-western, but not as much as Gonzo, Nalby, who are less Western than Roddick, etc?

Also, if James Blake is considered a flat hitter, is it odd that he uses a semi-western grip instead of Eastern to produce his flat shots?

[Hewittfan22]

You would not be able to hit that hard of flat forehand with an eastern forehand grip just simply because you cannot generate that much of racquet head speed, he is using SW for sure. And i think kuerten,ferrero and coria is also full western.

[heycal]

Originally Posted by Hewittfan22

You would not be able to hit that hard of flat forehand with an eastern forehand grip just simply because you cannot generate that much of racquet head speed, he is using SW for sure. And i think kuerten,ferrero and coria is also full western.

I don't understand. Generally speaking, I thought eastern grips are better for producing hard and flat shots (like Blake's), while more Western grips are better for producing topspin. Is that not the case?

[X_Factor]

Federer uses a semi-western grip on his forehand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix6cKaCqak0

[Hewittfan22]

you are right about eastern grips are better for producing flat shots but not nessasiliy hard shots, blake's forehand is pretty flat but if you look at it closely its more of a heavy topspin drive than flat. If you look at all these players posses powerful forehand like Safin,Gonzalez,Moya,Blake,Tursonov,Verdasco,Grosje an,Roddick...,,,and so on. They all have one thing in common, they all use somewhere between semi-western to Full western, power comes from racquets head speed not having an eastern grip. The reason why you cant have as much racquet head speed using an eastern forehand grip is because racquet face is pretty open during the swing as to using an western grip is relatively close which will allow you to swing up and over the ball with more racquet head speed generating much more powerful forehand. Mary Carllio once said that she will never teach anyone eastern forehand because its such an old school forehand which doesnt fit in these day's power tennis.

[heycal]

Originally Posted by Hewittfan22

you are right about eastern grips are better for producing flat shots but not nessasiliy hard shots, blake's forehand is pretty flat but if you look at it closely its more of a heavy topspin drive than flat. If you look at all these players posses powerful forehand like Safin,Gonzalez,Moya,Blake,Tursonov,Verdasco,Grosje an,Roddick...,,,and so on. They all have one thing in common, they all use somewhere between semi-western to Full western, power comes from racquets head speed not having an eastern grip. The reason why you cant have as much racquet head speed using an eastern forehand grip is because racquet face is pretty open during the swing as to using an western grip is relatively close which will allow you to swing up and over the ball with more racquet head speed generating much more powerful forehand. Mary Carllio once said that she will never teach anyone eastern forehand because its such an old school forehand which doesnt fit in these day's power tennis.

If Sampras was just starting his career now, would he still succeed with his Eastern forehand as much as he did before, or would today's semi-westerners leave him behind?

If the eastern grip is both worse for hitting hard shots and worse for hitting topspin, what the hell IS it good for?

Or there any modern/young players using eastern? And are there any gender differences between the ATP and WTA players in terms of forehand grip?

Also, if it's true that semi-western is best suited for today's power tennis at the pro level, is it also true that the semi-western is the best grip for today's 4.0 and below recreational tennis?

As for Federer's grip, it did look pretty SW in the clip the above, but Tricky says he uses eastern. Anyone know what Federer generally uses?

[Hewittfan22]

Well with his superior serve and volley back him up with his average groundies, but if he didnt have those two weapons he would just be an average top 100, although he has that amazing running forehand, i honestly dont know how he pulls that off with an eastern grip. dont get me wrong here though im not saying eastern is bad for everybody who plays tennis, i was just saying that at pro level beucase they hit with so much force, its not an ideal grip to use since it doesnt give you lot of margin for error and power. But if you are playing at level 4.0 and below eastern is not a bad grip to use it at all. I hardly see any juniors who plays competively uses eastern i guess its because their coaches didnt want them to develop a technique which they are not going to use in the future. The coaches who truly understands the modern game of tennis, i can gurantee you they are not going to teach their players to use eastern.
And for Federer he does not use eastern its so obvious he uses semi-western look at how he holds his racquet and how he swings. Federer uses his wrist so much that its almost hard to imagine that he is using an eastern.

[ShcMad]

Federer's forehand grip is usually in between an Eastern and a Semi-Western. So, it's neither 100% Eastern nor 100% Semi-Western. His index knuckle is usually in the border of bevels 3 and 4.

[Hewittfan22]

probably strong eastern but defintely not eastern

[X_Factor]

Eastern grip



Semi-Western grip



Western grip

http://z.about.com/d/tennis/1/0/e/continental-c.jpg

Continental grip

[heycal]

Originally Posted by ShcMad

Federer's forehand grip is usually in between an Eastern and a Semi-Western. So, it's neither 100% Eastern nor 100% Semi-Western. His index knuckle is usually in the border of bevels 3 and 4.

Where are you getting this info?