But I’m sure you’re aware that that is the most commonly given reason why women have WTA forehand although I always disagreed with it thinking similar to you. So what’s your view about the reason why women have WTA forehand?
Imo there seems to be a shortening of the takeback occurring, with more women on the tour falling into the so called ATP category, and several more with elements that make their forehand some kind of hybrid (for want of a better word).
Sakkari, Brady, Kasatkina, Ferro, Teichman, Badosa, Kostyuk, Jabeur, Rybakina, Podoroska all look like a modern same side forehand (I bet there are more). There may be
some differences to the men in general or in some cases, since I haven't studied this heavily.
Sabalenka has a big backswing but it doesn't seem to go way past the body line (breaking the plain or whatever it's called) like Madison Keys, so probably not ATP but close.
Muchova & Sevastova have a similar stroke with not that much lag, but the racquet is still on the same side with a decent loop.
Barty has one of the best forehands on the tour with quite a large loop and she does supinate before going into her forward swing, unlike the men, but from that point her stroke has a lot of ATP characteristics (or so I've been told).
Kudermetova, Mertens, Konta, Giorgi, Anisimova, Martic (??), Muguruza all have relatively short backswings, most on the same side or close, generally not breaking the plain with the
arm, and these are what I call a hybrid - they may not be what is often termed ATP but they are still different to the classic WTA model - a standard example of that might be Halep, Svitolina, Vekic, or Pavlyuchenkova.
I don't know how to classify Swiatek, but hybrid might be best - one things for sure, it's a monster forehand, but she does seem to like time to hit it.
Interestingly I saw some stats on fastest forehands and fastest average forehands from before Roland Garros started, and it's Kudermetova who on average hits one of the biggest balls - I would not have picked that.
So I think the times are changing.
Edit: Maybe those with more knowledge can offer their thoughts on this.
One more interesting observation - even the likes of Krejcikova, who has a standard WTA sized backswing, doesn't strike the ball like Venus Williams or Anna Ivanevic. She is more like Barty in her contact and release into the follow through, with an ability to generate more topspin because of it. And I think it's fair to say her forehand is doing some damage at the moment.
Edit: Zidansek needs added to this list, since her "hybrid" forehand is a beast, and it is her best shot by far (her backhand is another story).
@Curious, what you are doing is probably good for your tennis if it is helping your forehand consistency - the question is what does your coach say about all this? Just don't become too obsessed with the really short backswing, or you may end up here:
All this I totally agree with. But the key here is you talk about copying key elements of a modern fh vs curious categorically stating he has cracked the code of Fed’s fh. There is a vast difference between the two. Anyway to each his own. .
That was kinda my point about the rabbit hole earlier.