Sometimes I wonder if people pay attention when Federer plays. I've noticed that it's only some tennis fans on here who believe Federer does not have a good backhand. I have to believe they have some sort of problem with Federer or are not very discerning, because the evidence is overwhelming to the contrary. Federer's backhand looks great to me and all the players seem to think it's a great shot. Ancic even thinks it's the best backhand on tour. As for Newcombe, he also thinks Federer has a great backhand, but thinks he should hit through the slice more to disrupt Nadal. This could well be a tactical suggestion, as opposed to criticism of a technical shortcoming, especially given the fact I have seen Federer knife his slice often. Newcombe seems to think Federer would have no problem doing it, after only hitting for an hour with Rosewall. Also bear in mind that the receiving ball has a lot of say in what you can do with it. As great as his backhand was, Rosewall never had to contend with the height, topspin and pace on Nadal's ball, despite having played Borg.
I disagree that there are not plenty of good one-handers today. These are the best tennis players in the world we are talking about. Are you aware of how many excellent players out there are now not even good enough to make a decent living playing tennis, despite all the money in the sport? Standards have gone through the roof. Whatever the activity, when you are talking about the best in the world, standards are going to be incredibly high. This is especially true later in the history of any well established and respected enterprise. Standards are now higher than ever. Good one-handers include, Federer, Wawrinka, Gasquet, Robredo, Almagro, Youzhny, Kohlschreiber, Llodra, Haas, Ljubicic, Bolleli, Acasuso, Montanes, Rochus etc etc. The double-hander has grown in popularity since Borg and is now the most popular, but there are still plenty of great one-handers.
Gasquet has a great one-hander, but the only area where I could agree it is slightly better than Federer's, is in the almost metronomic regularity and consistency of his backhand drive. Everywhere else, it is worse. Kuerten, Gaudio and Puerta used the extreme backhand semi-western grip, so naturally would be able to deal slightly better with the high backhands on clay, but their backhands were no way near as effective on quicker and lower bouncing surfaces like grass and hardcourt. The same phenomenon occurs between semi-western and western grips on the forehand. Stich and Korda had nice backhands, but I would still put them behind Federer's. They just did not do all the amazing things I have seen Federer do with his nor where they as consistent. I would say Lendl had a more stable drive than Federer's, but not as much pace, variety or the great slice. Wawrinka's backhand reminds me of Lendl's a lot. All these backhands have their strengths and weaknesses, but nobody does it all perfectly. With Federer, because of his reputation as possibly the best player ever, I think some people tend to focus more on his mistakes, than on all the shots he makes. In a match, he is not shanking every other ball. He'll shank 1, 2, 3 or 4 balls on the backhand in the entire match and, for some reason, people will remember all the shanks and not all the shots he made. It's not like he does not shank on his forehand as well, but no one says he does not have a great forehand. All players will make their fair share of unforced errors, off both wings, so what difference does it make whether you hit it in the net, outside the lines or shank it?
Federer's backhand was short listed as amongst the best today by Tennis magazine.
http://www.tennis.com/features/greatestshots/greatestshots.aspx?id=108756
Also, in 2008 Ancic selected Federer's backhand as the best today, which, whatever you think of the selection, would be unlikely to occur if it were not a great shot.
Which of your fellow tennis players do you think has the best of each of the following shots?
Mario:
Serve - Karlovic
Forehand - Gonzalez
Backhand - Federer
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/7449105.stm