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Loved reading it.. thought i would share it..
https://www.quora.com/Why-was-Feder...ak/answer/Lon-Shapiro?srid=Xlr&share=747dcf5a
Pungky, your question is based on the absurd fanboy arguments that echo through the world of social media. I’m sorry, but message boards on reddit, Quora, or Tennis warehouse are not the place for you to research the subject of tennis.
No former player, coach or tennis journalist - basically anyone who knows anything about tennis - has ever called Federer’s backhand weak. Players don’t become number one in the world by having a glaring weakness.
But let’s analyze Federer’s backhand to understand the nature of the weakness, how easy it was to exploit, and who could exploit it.
Technical checklist
Did he make unforced errors off the serve return? No. He was able to keep the ball low against the best servers in the world.
Was he able to stay in extended rallies with the best players in the world? Yes. As evidenced by his four French Open finals, he had a claim to being the second best player in the world on clay during his prime. Even an over-30 Federer beat Djokovic on red clay at the French in 2011, Djokovic’s greatest season (in 2015, Novak’s only real competition was a 34-year-old Federer).
Could he attack off his backhand? Yes. If opponents hit short balls, he could drive his backhand up the line and hit winners.
Could he hit passing shots when players came to the net? Yes. Watch his match at Wimbledon against Sampras.
Could he play amazing defense by reaching balls hit wide of his backhand? Yes. He is just as good as any two-hander on defense, as they are forced to play a one-handed slice backhand when they are stretched out.
The one difference between a one-handed and two-handed backhand
So what is the basis of this social media hot take? It’s the one technical disadvantage of a one-handed backhand vs a two-handed backhand: the ability to attack balls above the shoulder. If you look at all the great recent one-handed backhands (Wawrinka, ljubicic, Federer, Gasquet, Almagro, Theim, Kohlschreiber, Haas, etc.), only Wawrinka and the 6′4″ ljubicic were able to step in and attack these shots. Everyone else just backs up and tries to hit back a high looping topspin to stay in rallies.
Head-to-head match ups
Finally, let’s look at how this “weakness” has handicapped Federer’s career. If a player has an obvious weakness, we would assume the results would prove this out. Against every great right-handed baseline player he has faced the results have been far less than disastrous: 22–23 vs Djokovic, 14–11 vs Murray, 15–5 vs Del Potro, 20–3 vs Wawrinka, 16–0 vs Ferrer, 6–2 vs Simon, 17–6 vs Berdych, 11-6 vs Tsonga, 9–4 vs Monfils, 6–1 vs Cilic, 5–0 vs Almagro, 5–0 vs Goffin, 5–0 vs Dimitrov, 15–2 vs Gasquet, 11–0 vs Kohlschreiber, 13–3 vs Ljubicic, 5–2 vs Nishikori, 10–2 vs Safin, 13–3 vs Haas, 18–9 vs Hewitt, 11–8 vs Nalbandian, 10–3 vs Ferrero, 8–3 vs Agassi.
That’s not much of an indication of a real weakness. How does he do against the best left handed players in the world, whose most natural shot, the cross court forehand, attacks a right hander’s backhand? 6–0 vs Verdasco, 12–0 vs Lopez, 5–0 vs Muller, 3–0 vs Zverev. The rest of the modern lefties are outside the top 30, so this exercise is fairly pointless.
The nemesis
So basically no player in the modern era has been able to consistently find Federer’s one weakness on the backhand side, except for Nadal, who also happens to be the greatest clay court player of all time. And aside from Nadal’s dominance on clay, Federer in his prime (2004–2010) had a small edge against Nadal on grass (2–1) and hard courts (4–3).
What changed in Federer’s backhand?
If you’ve been watching Federer’s scintillating play this year, it’s clear that Federer is hitting more winners off his backhand. How does a 35-year-old champion suddenly improve his backhand after playing on the circuit for the last 17 years?
On the surface, the answer is nothing. Just look at Federer’s stroke in 2004:
Now watch his backhand from this year:
It’s really hard to see a technical difference.
But there have been some really big changes in Federer over the last three years:
Finally, we need to look at the state of Federer’s one real nemesis, Nadal. As great as Rafa has been, the reality is that his physical abilities have deteriorated. He can’t play the style he used when he dominated the world of clay between 2005 and 2014. He has had too many stress-related injuries because he has to work so hard to play his absolute best. Because of that, his coach Carlos Moya has been working with Nadal to hit harder and flatter to shorten points and preserve his body. So while Nadal is regaining his old ranking after collapsing following the 2014 French Open, his new style actually hurts his results against Federer.
In AO17, when Nadal played more aggressively against Federer, his topspin forehand was only bouncing 4′1″ on average, meaning that most of his ball were only going chest high. Federer has always been comfortable hitting these balls, and he dominated the first set this way. In the second, Nadal dug in and returned to his heavy topspin game. On TV, there was a graphic that showed his balls bouncing 4′11″ on average - shoulder height, and it hurt “new” Federer, just like it hurt Federer in his prime. Nadal won the second set this way, then reverted to his new more aggressive style and lost the third set. Nadal dug in again, to win the fourth sets using heavy topspin, and even took a 3–1 lead in the fifth. But the physical toll was too great, and his shots either started to land to short, or he flattened out shots, and Federer stormed back, winning the last five games to win the match 6–3 in the fifth.
Most telling was the way Federer kept driving his backhand off the return of serve, as Nadal’s slice serve goes out wide, but stays low. Federer put so much more pressure on Nadal, he had break points in almost every game Nadal served in the fifth set, and broke three straight games. As I recall, he had 13 break points in the fifth set alone (remember he had only 13 break points in five sets in the 2008 Wimbledon final).
Indian Wells was even worse for Nadal. A graphic showed how he had increased the speed of his groundstrokes over the last five years in the tournament, but faster pace means a little less spin - you can’t have both. The balls were moving through the desert air very fast, and Federer consistently got to hit most of his shots chest high. In their history of matches, this was one of the worst beatings that Nadal ever suffered. He looked completely puzzled by what had happened.
Conclusion
Federer, like almost every player who hits a one handed backhand, can be pressed if you can hit a ball above their shoulders. (Only Wawrinka has been able to hit that shot consistently - Ljubicic is three inches taller than Federer, so a lot of balls that would give Federer trouble would still be in the strike zone for the Croatian.) But it is beyond ridiculous to characterize Federer’s backhand as a weakness, or question the competition of any particular time period considering he has maintained his status as a top 2 or 3 player long since turning 30.
https://www.quora.com/Why-was-Feder...ak/answer/Lon-Shapiro?srid=Xlr&share=747dcf5a
Pungky, your question is based on the absurd fanboy arguments that echo through the world of social media. I’m sorry, but message boards on reddit, Quora, or Tennis warehouse are not the place for you to research the subject of tennis.
No former player, coach or tennis journalist - basically anyone who knows anything about tennis - has ever called Federer’s backhand weak. Players don’t become number one in the world by having a glaring weakness.
But let’s analyze Federer’s backhand to understand the nature of the weakness, how easy it was to exploit, and who could exploit it.
Technical checklist
Did he make unforced errors off the serve return? No. He was able to keep the ball low against the best servers in the world.
Was he able to stay in extended rallies with the best players in the world? Yes. As evidenced by his four French Open finals, he had a claim to being the second best player in the world on clay during his prime. Even an over-30 Federer beat Djokovic on red clay at the French in 2011, Djokovic’s greatest season (in 2015, Novak’s only real competition was a 34-year-old Federer).
Could he attack off his backhand? Yes. If opponents hit short balls, he could drive his backhand up the line and hit winners.
Could he hit passing shots when players came to the net? Yes. Watch his match at Wimbledon against Sampras.
Could he play amazing defense by reaching balls hit wide of his backhand? Yes. He is just as good as any two-hander on defense, as they are forced to play a one-handed slice backhand when they are stretched out.
The one difference between a one-handed and two-handed backhand
So what is the basis of this social media hot take? It’s the one technical disadvantage of a one-handed backhand vs a two-handed backhand: the ability to attack balls above the shoulder. If you look at all the great recent one-handed backhands (Wawrinka, ljubicic, Federer, Gasquet, Almagro, Theim, Kohlschreiber, Haas, etc.), only Wawrinka and the 6′4″ ljubicic were able to step in and attack these shots. Everyone else just backs up and tries to hit back a high looping topspin to stay in rallies.
Head-to-head match ups
Finally, let’s look at how this “weakness” has handicapped Federer’s career. If a player has an obvious weakness, we would assume the results would prove this out. Against every great right-handed baseline player he has faced the results have been far less than disastrous: 22–23 vs Djokovic, 14–11 vs Murray, 15–5 vs Del Potro, 20–3 vs Wawrinka, 16–0 vs Ferrer, 6–2 vs Simon, 17–6 vs Berdych, 11-6 vs Tsonga, 9–4 vs Monfils, 6–1 vs Cilic, 5–0 vs Almagro, 5–0 vs Goffin, 5–0 vs Dimitrov, 15–2 vs Gasquet, 11–0 vs Kohlschreiber, 13–3 vs Ljubicic, 5–2 vs Nishikori, 10–2 vs Safin, 13–3 vs Haas, 18–9 vs Hewitt, 11–8 vs Nalbandian, 10–3 vs Ferrero, 8–3 vs Agassi.
That’s not much of an indication of a real weakness. How does he do against the best left handed players in the world, whose most natural shot, the cross court forehand, attacks a right hander’s backhand? 6–0 vs Verdasco, 12–0 vs Lopez, 5–0 vs Muller, 3–0 vs Zverev. The rest of the modern lefties are outside the top 30, so this exercise is fairly pointless.
The nemesis
So basically no player in the modern era has been able to consistently find Federer’s one weakness on the backhand side, except for Nadal, who also happens to be the greatest clay court player of all time. And aside from Nadal’s dominance on clay, Federer in his prime (2004–2010) had a small edge against Nadal on grass (2–1) and hard courts (4–3).
What changed in Federer’s backhand?
If you’ve been watching Federer’s scintillating play this year, it’s clear that Federer is hitting more winners off his backhand. How does a 35-year-old champion suddenly improve his backhand after playing on the circuit for the last 17 years?
On the surface, the answer is nothing. Just look at Federer’s stroke in 2004:
Now watch his backhand from this year:
It’s really hard to see a technical difference.
But there have been some really big changes in Federer over the last three years:
- The new racket - Federer finally changed from a 90 square inch frame to a 97 square inch frame. This has reduced the number of mishits and given Federer a little bit more power. Jim Courier spoke about this change and gave the reason why he, Sampras and the other champions in the 1990s stuck with 85–90 square inch rackets when the larger heads were already available: “we were idiots.”
- New coach - if you look at the progression of Federer’s coaches, you can see how he was struggling to solve the riddle of Nadal. Annacone and Edberg were all about getting better at the net. But in 2016, he went to Ivan Ljubicic, looking for something different. As I mentioned earlier, Ljubicic was the only player with a one-handed backhand besides Wawrinka who could step in and attack high balls to the backhand. It’s clear that Federer has found the smallest edge with his new coach, possibly with some fine technical adjustment, and for sure in his strategy and mentality.
- The injury - Federer sat out the last half of 2016 due to injury. Sometimes, an extended period away from the circuit allows players to reinvent themselves. Bill Tilden (the champion from the 20s) took off a good part of a year and learned a new backhand. Australian Paul McNamee was remarkable for being one of the few professional players who took time mid-career to switch from a one-hander to a two-hander. Federer may not have made much, if any, of a technical change, but he was able to practice stepping in and attacking high backhands and driving his backhand off his return until it became part of him.
- Father Time - Along with the new coach and attitude toward his backhand, Federer’s age has forced him to let go of the results more than he ever did during his prime. He knows he doesn’t have the stamina of younger players, so playing extended baseline rallies leads to him breaking down much sooner. He is willing to take chances to win, even if it means making more errors. And because he knows that playing the old style mean a slower, but inevitable defeat, he has the courage to keep playing his new style for the entire match. Ironically, it is the ability to let go that gives people the chance to find that place of physical and mental harmony where peak performance can occur. If you are interested in learning more about how to create an ideal performance state, read the works of Tim Gallwey and sports psychologist Jim Loehr.
Finally, we need to look at the state of Federer’s one real nemesis, Nadal. As great as Rafa has been, the reality is that his physical abilities have deteriorated. He can’t play the style he used when he dominated the world of clay between 2005 and 2014. He has had too many stress-related injuries because he has to work so hard to play his absolute best. Because of that, his coach Carlos Moya has been working with Nadal to hit harder and flatter to shorten points and preserve his body. So while Nadal is regaining his old ranking after collapsing following the 2014 French Open, his new style actually hurts his results against Federer.
In AO17, when Nadal played more aggressively against Federer, his topspin forehand was only bouncing 4′1″ on average, meaning that most of his ball were only going chest high. Federer has always been comfortable hitting these balls, and he dominated the first set this way. In the second, Nadal dug in and returned to his heavy topspin game. On TV, there was a graphic that showed his balls bouncing 4′11″ on average - shoulder height, and it hurt “new” Federer, just like it hurt Federer in his prime. Nadal won the second set this way, then reverted to his new more aggressive style and lost the third set. Nadal dug in again, to win the fourth sets using heavy topspin, and even took a 3–1 lead in the fifth. But the physical toll was too great, and his shots either started to land to short, or he flattened out shots, and Federer stormed back, winning the last five games to win the match 6–3 in the fifth.
Most telling was the way Federer kept driving his backhand off the return of serve, as Nadal’s slice serve goes out wide, but stays low. Federer put so much more pressure on Nadal, he had break points in almost every game Nadal served in the fifth set, and broke three straight games. As I recall, he had 13 break points in the fifth set alone (remember he had only 13 break points in five sets in the 2008 Wimbledon final).
Indian Wells was even worse for Nadal. A graphic showed how he had increased the speed of his groundstrokes over the last five years in the tournament, but faster pace means a little less spin - you can’t have both. The balls were moving through the desert air very fast, and Federer consistently got to hit most of his shots chest high. In their history of matches, this was one of the worst beatings that Nadal ever suffered. He looked completely puzzled by what had happened.
Conclusion
Federer, like almost every player who hits a one handed backhand, can be pressed if you can hit a ball above their shoulders. (Only Wawrinka has been able to hit that shot consistently - Ljubicic is three inches taller than Federer, so a lot of balls that would give Federer trouble would still be in the strike zone for the Croatian.) But it is beyond ridiculous to characterize Federer’s backhand as a weakness, or question the competition of any particular time period considering he has maintained his status as a top 2 or 3 player long since turning 30.