NEW DELHI: “I’ve bought a 150-year streak to avoid wasting,” Stefanos Tsitsipas wrote in an X submit on Saturday. The Greek tennis participant tends to submit hyperbole, veering from the philosophical to the absurd. However right here, for a change, he was spot on. As he confronted Ben Shelton within the fourth spherical of the US Open, he was certainly enjoying to maintain considered one of tennis’ greatest traditions alive. A practice that began in 1877 on the All England Garden Tennis & Croquet Membership culminated in a New York night at Arthur Ashe Stadium in 2026.For the primary time since Grand Slam tennis started in 1877 at Wimbledon, no man with a one-handed backhand will attain a serious semi-final in a season.At first, the one-handed backhand was the default alternative. With picket rackets, amateurs and professionals alike would make use of a single-handed backhand to outfox their opponents.When the sport developed, two-handed backhands discovered their groove. The variety of one-handed backhand gamers decreased, however the stroke nonetheless maintained its presence. John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg, Pete Sampras, Gustavo Kuerten, Richard Gasquet, Roger Federer, Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem are a few of the names which have embraced the stroke during the last 4 many years or extra.In 1905, when all 4 Slams have been performed, there have been 16 one-handed backhanders in Grand Slam semifinals. Bounce a grand hundred years to 2005, and that quantity had decreased to 5. Federer, 4 instances, and Mariano Puerta made up that listing. Final 12 months, that quantity dwindled to only one, with Lorenzo Musetti reaching the final 4 of the French Open.The 24-year-old Italian is the highest-ranked single-handed backhand males’s participant within the ATP standings. However he could not carry this 149-year-old legacy ahead, going out within the second spherical of the US Open. Neither might Canada’s Denis Shapovalov, World No. 48, who bowed out to Ben Shelton within the third spherical. Nor might 2016 US Open champion Stan Wawrinka, who was handed a late wildcard, exiting and retiring after a first-round loss.Earlier this 12 months, Musetti might have saved that streak stepping into Melbourne. He was up by two units within the quarter-final in opposition to Novak Djokovic on the Australian Open. Main 6-4, 6-3, he injured his higher proper leg and was unable to proceed regardless of a go to from the physio.
‘Like dinosaurs going extinct’
There are 19 one-handed backhanders within the ATP top-300 rankings. In 2013, that quantity stood at 62 throughout the ATP and Challenger ranges.“Each single decade, we’re lowering. We’re like dinosaurs going extinct,” mentioned Tsitsipas, a two-time main finalist, after his second-round win over Lloyd Harris.Musetti acknowledges that the altering form of the game has been a key motive. “I feel it’s partly a consequence of the truth that, realistically, the two-handed backhand gives a bonus in trendy tennis,” mentioned Musetti, who reached main semifinals in 2024 and 2025.
I feel when your coach is a one-handed tennis participant, you’ll probably be a one-handed tennis participant too
Roger Federer
Federer, who received 20 main titles in his trophy-laden profession, says the early days of a tennis participant make a distinction.“I feel when your coach is a one-handed tennis participant, you’ll probably be a one-handed tennis participant too,” the Swiss mentioned earlier than the US Open. “These days, in all probability the coaches are principally double-handed gamers, and it is simply simpler to show a child to have two fingers on the backhand aspect. One in all my youngsters is switching from a double-hander to a one-hander, and I simply see how exhausting it’s for him to hit it and management it.”Then there may be Diane Parry. The Frenchwoman makes use of a two-handed backhand when returning serve earlier than reverting to a one-hander, one thing that ‘fits her soul’.“I believed that it would maybe assist me, as a result of, when you consider it, it’s nonetheless simpler to return a quick serve with two fingers,” she mentioned throughout the US Open. “It doesn’t come naturally to me, although, so it requires work, and it takes time at the start falls correctly into place. However it stays an possibility in my recreation.”
Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti in motion throughout the US Open. (AP)
Denis Shapovalov advocates for the one-hander, given the chance to create higher angles in contrast with the two-handed backhand. Musetti, in the meantime, acknowledges that the two-handed backhand is “extra advantageous as we speak”, regardless that he intends to show it as a father or coach.“Aesthetically, sure, I’d educate it. I’d love for my son, or maybe a participant I coach sooner or later, to have a one-handed backhand. I’d like to see that.“However by way of effectivity, I feel the two-handed backhand is extra advantageous, particularly within the trendy recreation, with the pace at which tennis is performed as we speak,” said the 24-year-old Italian.
