dominikk1985
Legend
Here is the theory: at the pro level you see two basic strategies a lot:
1. Playing cross court
2. Playing to the opponents BH
A righty can play the BH to BH or I/o to BH rally and then stay in the BH corner as the recovery position after a CC shot is a couple feet to the left of the center mark so it means you don't have to move that much to the recovery position as you are already to the left of the center mark when you hit.
Agassi did that a lot camping in the BH corner, hitting CC backhands and daring the opponent to hit a difficult dTL backhand.
On the other hand the lefty (or righty against a lefty too of course so it is not an advantage for the lefty but maybe could be over the course of a tournament as it makes him more tired) doesn't have that safe haven in the BH corner.
If he hits a CC forehand he would in theory have to stay to the left of the center mark but this would mean he would conver 2/3rd of the court with his BH which is not ideal or he would stay in the BH corner which opens up the FH corner for an easy to hit CC backhand so he has to go a long way to get there as this position is not the optimum bisector of return options.
And if opponent hits to your BH corner you have to hit easier the more unnatural DTL BH having a long recovery to the other side of the court or into his FH.
Of course the righty has all those disadvantages too and in an individual match the lefty thus has a slight advantage but I wonder if that extra running is one of the reasons why Nadal has this "uneconomic" playing style that causes him having to run so much meaning more tiring and injuries.
Not saying being a lefty isn't an advantage for him but if he was a righty he could just hit heavy I/O forehands into the opponent's BH corner while camping in his own BH corner causing less running and changes of the diagonal.
Of course this would also make his opponents less tired so I wouldn't call that a disadvantage but maybe he would have been injured less and also done better against Novak as a righty?
1. Playing cross court
2. Playing to the opponents BH
A righty can play the BH to BH or I/o to BH rally and then stay in the BH corner as the recovery position after a CC shot is a couple feet to the left of the center mark so it means you don't have to move that much to the recovery position as you are already to the left of the center mark when you hit.
Agassi did that a lot camping in the BH corner, hitting CC backhands and daring the opponent to hit a difficult dTL backhand.
On the other hand the lefty (or righty against a lefty too of course so it is not an advantage for the lefty but maybe could be over the course of a tournament as it makes him more tired) doesn't have that safe haven in the BH corner.
If he hits a CC forehand he would in theory have to stay to the left of the center mark but this would mean he would conver 2/3rd of the court with his BH which is not ideal or he would stay in the BH corner which opens up the FH corner for an easy to hit CC backhand so he has to go a long way to get there as this position is not the optimum bisector of return options.
And if opponent hits to your BH corner you have to hit easier the more unnatural DTL BH having a long recovery to the other side of the court or into his FH.
Of course the righty has all those disadvantages too and in an individual match the lefty thus has a slight advantage but I wonder if that extra running is one of the reasons why Nadal has this "uneconomic" playing style that causes him having to run so much meaning more tiring and injuries.
Not saying being a lefty isn't an advantage for him but if he was a righty he could just hit heavy I/O forehands into the opponent's BH corner while camping in his own BH corner causing less running and changes of the diagonal.
Of course this would also make his opponents less tired so I wouldn't call that a disadvantage but maybe he would have been injured less and also done better against Novak as a righty?
