Can Flavio Cipolla Hit a Top Spin BH?

Has this guy ever come over the ball on his BH? It's really quite shocking to me that someone who plays like that can be in the top 100 and from time to time give top guys close matches. It's really quite unbelievable; he just kind of punts it on his BH; he has 90-mile serve and looks to me like a sophisticated club player of the pusher, grinder variety. A very frustrating guy to play but it seems to me that if you serve and volley to his BH and relentlessly attack it with a follow up at the net, it shouldn't be that hard to defeat him.

What am I missing? Can somebody explain his crazy success?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov7HvAa02cs

Look at this sequence:

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

Guess the guy just doesn't have too much confidence on the backhand drives. Same goes for guys like Petzschner and Karlovic

If I had his footwork I would have been world number one. God has a sense of humour I suppose in what he gives out and what he holds back.

wow... dude has absolutely no extra takeback on his forehand. Nonetheless, despite the odd stroke, it still looks to be biomechanically sound - he's using his leps, hips, torso in the shot...

He did hit a topsin pass at 1:06 in that Wawrinka video. I guess he can pass and lob well enough to keep opponents from charging the net at will.

"Magico Flavio" is right. I love that a guy like this is #81 in the world...

Also--that BH slice looks like it stays low and skids. It doesn't look like a particularly easy shot to attack.

Bjorn99 said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sN0EYpcfeg

Click to expand...

Well that explains why he avoids hitting it; if that was my hander I'd be slicing all day too...