I forgot to include Taro Daniel in the group. He has a decent backhand off which he often hits winners while his forehand is below college level unfortunately, off which he hits 0 to 5 winners in a match on average.

 

Benoit Paire

 

Luca Pouille?

 

Thinking about it now, many French players have much better backhands

 

Yes, the only big exception is Tsonga I think.

 

Murray, Zverev, Medvedev?

 

I think you could include Murray and Zverev in this category.

 

Greg diamond

 

who the hell is he? Never heard of his name. More info pls.

 

I actually think Nishikori is fairly balanced, but I think the norm on tour is to be more Forehand dominant, so balanced players stand out.

 

Andy Rodick?

 

much more extreme example would be Fernando Gonzalez, he had the most extreme disparity I have ever seen between Forehand and Backhand...

 

How could you not include the GOAT in the OP?

 

Active players?

 

Also you guys forgot Wawrinka.

And Thiem could be considered as well.

 

Also you guys forgot Wawrinka.

And Thiem could be considered as well.

As long term fan of both I completely disagree.
Their forehands are much more stable, more effective, even harder, better in general.
Their backhand looks spectacular, but it's definetely not their better shot.
They do play forehand for 75%, so they also never turn to play backhand.

 

when we talk about players' backhands being better than their forehands, it's in a relative sense. there are an exceedingly small number of players whose backhands are better than their forehands on an absolute scale. most players with great backhands would still rather try to hit a winner with their forehand if given a choice, because their forehand will be the more powerful shot still.

 

Djokovic and Wawrinka aren't even close, both have one of the most underrated FHs in tennis



Yeah that's true but about the 2nd part...

As you said, almost all players are runnig around their BH at some point because the FH is more powerful (= eaiser to finish the point) and you can also handle extremely high or low balls better but that doesn't mean that their FH is actually the better shot overall, just better in certain circumstances. Players like Paire and Gulbis are spraying FH on a regular basis, and it's not because they take so much more risk on the FH and hit siginificantly more FH winners.

 

Stan the man

 

this is from Nov. 18 Who Has the Best Shots in Men’s Tennis? (Published 2018)

they voted
double handed backhand
Djokovic
Nishikori
Zverev

single handed backhand
Wawrinka
Gasquet
Federer

 

this is from Nov. 18 Who Has the Best Shots in Men’s Tennis? (Published 2018)

they voted
double handed backhand
Djokovic
Nishikori
Zverev

single handed backhand
Wawrinka
Gasquet
Federer

Not Federer, but Kuerten yes.

 

Roger Federer has left the chat.

 

I choked on my smoothie

 

No idea how Gulbis hasn't been mentioned.

 

Mikael Ymer

 

Was just reading this post and wondering when Stnaimal would be mentioned, and then he was, he was the first who came to my mind!!

 

I sometimes watch prime Stan's backhand winners on 7 year old youtube videos and I am

 

 

I'd say Gasquet, Gulbis, Medvedev, Paire, and Zverev. These are probably players where you'd rather hit to their forehand than their backhand.

I'd say Murray, Niishikori, and Wawrinka are pretty balanced, but relative to the rest of the tour, three backhands stand out.

 

Nalbandian, Sexy, Drugassi, Benneclown, could definitely argue for Davy or Safin (somebody who watched him more correct me on him). Stan used to be, but the improvements to his FH made him the man.

You could argue for both Fred in latter part of their careers (with the switch to bigger racket 2014-onwards, even before 2017 improvements Fred's BH was the more attacking weapon) and Nadal (2015-18, maybe 20, not sure, then his BH got worse again).

Definitely not Monfils or Thiem.

 

It would have to be a garbage forehand to have a backhand be better than it, even player like Murray or Medvedev run around thei backhands to hit forehands.

 

Running around is not necessarily a sign of stronger FH. One should run around on appropriate balls even if FH and BH are absolutely equal in quality. It has intrinsic advantages:

• hitting FH from the left side of the court you finish your stroke moving towards center
• with generally more open stance on FH than BH (and again, being positioned on the left side of your court) you can better (peripherally) see your opponenet's position and moves all the way to the moment of contact

 

Borna Coric