Rovesciarete
Hall of Fame
Quite an obvious one, if you want you can add other candidates! Here we have a graph of the most recent - and slowest - clay 1000 tournaments:
ATP’s best clay backhand in 2024 among the (ex) Top10?
- Thread starter Rovesciarete
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Rovesciarete
Hall of Fame
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Rovesciarete
Hall of Fame
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nolefam_2024
Bionic Poster
Backhand is not for attacking so I am choosing Jannik Sinner right now. On forehand he is possibly only the top one on clay. We will see by end of April/May
Rovesciarete
Hall of Fame
Will be interesting to watch for sure. Usual caveats apply even more, remember that Sinner lost early against Altmaier with his spinny one-hander. Comic ans Rublev a bit of a surprise there - just like Medvedev. Alcaraz not up there. Food for though…
Other pre-RG stats
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The Blond Blur
G.O.A.T.
kevin qmto
Hall of Fame
Until Nadal plays a match on clay in 2024 his name should be greyed out.
Rovesciarete
Hall of Fame
It’s a prediction and Nadal will play on clay this year.
MeatTornado
Talk Tennis Guru
I'll pick Zverev the day he gets serious about ball and can actually hit one of those backhands under pressure.
I think his backhand under pressure is still fine, the larger issue is his FH under pressure is not even a Challenger level shot and it screws up his point construction and court positioning
Rovesciarete
Hall of Fame
Zverev loves the high-bouncing top-spin into his high strike-zone. The advantages of having a two-handed backhand being almost two meters tall. Not that much spin though, might explain why he plays usually deeper. Can flatten it out often well.
Sinner has one of the highest top-spin among the top 15 two-handed backhands and one of the hardest one as well. Difficult to argue that he hasn’t the heaviest clay shot from that wing.
We will see who performs best there…
nolefam_2024
Bionic Poster
2 years ago I would have picked Zverev instead of Sinner. But now there is not much doubt.
Rovesciarete
Hall of Fame
Could have made it clearer, noted. Personally I see it as a prediction, but maybe I will leave the poll open until the end of Monte Carlo.
Afterwards maybe I will do a follow-up.
Rovesciarete
Hall of Fame
I would have struggled between Nadal, Zverev and Djokovic.
Vincent-C
Legend
lucky shot
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The Blond Blur
G.O.A.T.
So is it like your goal to be this insufferable, or does it just come natural? Really don’t get the point in being a constant troll.
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nolefam_2024
Bionic Poster
You are right of course. All 3 are good choices. I was thinking between Sinner and Zverev, I would have chosen Zverev without any hesitancy.
Rovesciarete
Hall of Fame
Indeed, one can say he was beaten only with help from the referee
Overall I honestly think that Sinner’s backhand was the best of the MC competition among the top guys. He obviously goes also inside-out but it withstood even the Tsitsi forehand well and Stefanos was quite enthralled by his performance, more so in the first set.
Others were more spectacular, others more consistent but nobody has his blend of defence, resilience, reliability, weight and spin.
Rovesciarete
Hall of Fame
Have to say that Ruud's backhand was sometimes downward rude in the Barcelona final, noted.
Rovesciarete
Hall of Fame
From the ATP RG final report:
Zverev has imho one of the best backhands on clay and with Novak struggling physically this year only Sinner* can claim to have a better one. Alcaraz is obviously close.
The key difference is that Charlie uses his versatility often, including even the occasional moon-ball and drop-shot to get out of the bh cross-court battle and to activate possibly the best clay forehand in the modern game. He exploited also Sinner‘s lack of hip strength and peak fitness by using sharp angles or droppers into his forehand - similar to Moutet.
It will be interesting to see how things will go on grass!
*A curious fact: Sinner lost twice against Alcaraz but out-pointed him in both matches combined…
Zverev has imho one of the best backhands on clay and with Novak struggling physically this year only Sinner* can claim to have a better one. Alcaraz is obviously close.
The key difference is that Charlie uses his versatility often, including even the occasional moon-ball and drop-shot to get out of the bh cross-court battle and to activate possibly the best clay forehand in the modern game. He exploited also Sinner‘s lack of hip strength and peak fitness by using sharp angles or droppers into his forehand - similar to Moutet.
It will be interesting to see how things will go on grass!
*A curious fact: Sinner lost twice against Alcaraz but out-pointed him in both matches combined…
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