Gasquet's backhand is one of the WORST against high balls

[thomasferrett]

Have you noticed that whenever Gasquet has to hit a backhand above shoulder height, his shot barely makes it over the service line? Sure, his ball may have a bit more topspin on it than the average backhand to make it the ball kick up a bit deeper than it would otherwise, but it's nowhere enough spin to compensate for the shortness of the bounce - we're not talking Nadal forehand levels of spin by any means and opponents will often step in and give it the crushing it deserves.

I think ALL of the following players can get the ball much deeper on their backhands when dealing with high balls;

Federer
Wawrinka
Almagro
Kohlschreiber
Cuevas
Thiem
Dimitrov (his backhand is very surprisingly good with high balls)
L. Mayer
Zeballos

Shapovalov and Tsitsipas also show potential to have a backhand that is more stable against higher balls than Gasquet's. Lajovic's backhand is roughly equivalent.

Really, the only 1hbh's Gasquet's is better than at handling high balls are;

Robredo
Kicker
F. Lopez
Sela
Youzhny (though in his prime, Youzhny was better)

 

[zill]

I agree. Gasquet’s backhand is way overrated.

 

[TearTheRoofOff]

Gasquet's BH is a beautiful shot that hits HL reel winners. However it's way less functional overall than someone like Fed's, and is generally overrated based on it's single top-tier function as an admittedly great long range artillery drive.

 

[NuBas]

Interesting observation, why do you think that is, you see anything in his technique?
Gasquet does hit his strokes differently and his racquet handle has that knob on the bottom so that may have to do something with it.

Sorry for vids but I like how Robredo hits his forehand.

 

[Yoneyama]

This is true because Gasquet trends towards heavy topspin for his 1hbh by default. Most other players have a good mix of topspin and drive.

Dimitrovs works good for high balls because he has a more traditional grip... also the reason why he sprays them into the net more often on lower balls.

 

[zill]

This is true because Gasquet trends towards heavy topspin for his 1hbh by default. Most other players have a good mix of topspin and drive.

Dimitrovs works good for high balls because he has a more traditional grip... also the reason why he sprays them into the net more often on lower balls.

I hate Dimitrov’s backhand. So ineffective and unnatural looking.

 

[Yoneyama]

I hate Dimitrov’s backhand. So ineffective and unnatural looking.

No idea how he hasn’t destroyed his wrist. His grip is so much harder on the wrist joint.

 

[PaulC]

Pretty tough to hit deeper with his BH motion dynamics -- i.e. putting more upward energy than forward energy to the stroke (given his usual court position near the fence), but I'll say he's already improved on this a bit compared to a few years back, which is moon-ball every one of them back almost every time back then.

 

[NuBas]

No idea how he hasn’t destroyed his wrist. His grip is so much harder on the wrist joint.

That's cause he doesn't use too much wrist, I think Gasquet might have more 'wrist' than Dimitrov.

 

[FiReFTW]

Tbh none of this players hit amazing very high OHB because its simply not possible, even tho Gasquets is particularly bad at it.

 

[Yoneyama]

That's cause he doesn't use too much wrist, I think Gasquet might have more 'wrist' than Dimitrov.

I’m not talking about wrist action or wrist flick, I mean his grip. He uses basically a continental forehand grip for his topspin backhand which means his wrist is under more strain to keep the racquet face perpendicular to the ground / closed. Try it yourself