The second installment of FYB’s strategy quiz deals with Roger Federer’s inside-out forehand. Roger is always looking to hit an inside-out forehand during a backhand to backhand exchange with his opponent. There’s something about Federer’s backhand shot selection that gives him many opportunities to hit an inside-out forehand — do you know the answer?
For further reading, check out our video on Roger Federer’s forehand grip.
{ 145 comments }
← Previous Comments
I think its more likely to be an advantage if you hit single handed backhands. The position of your foot work, after hitting a backhand shot, allows you to rotate your body further around (as apossed to a double handed shot), leaving you ready to step backwards and hit an open handed forehand. I think this is the answer, as well as being able to mix up the length of your prevoius shot helps, but its more of a predetermined shot to allow Federer to give himself the oppertunity to hit a winner.
Ofcourse you need to be able to read your oppenents shot very early. Its a risky shot and if you look closer at Federers games he does also make a high % unforced errors with this shot as well. If I was Federers coach Id tell him not to hit that shot (so often) and to play a backhand down the line for a winner, but thats only my opinion.
Good sir
Good sir
federer changes the timing
I think the first reason why he uses the slice and the top spin backhand is to upset the rhythm of his opponent. Secondly, it varies the depth of his shot from near the baseline to the service area which creates the opportunity for his inside out forehand.
I think federer alternates between slice and his normal backhand to ensure his opponent doesn't take the risk to run around the ball(his opponent would probably not be able to catch it if it was a normal backhand).
It gives Federer more time to move left and set up his in-side out
muy interesante
Great stuff, Will!
nice vid
interesting
second video is not popping up
i don't know from what year is this video. Currently there are quite a few players mixing backhand slice and topspin (top 4 for sure: Djoko, Nadal, Murray). and i have an impression that more and more 'hard hitters' are able to exploit a poor slice. so it may appear to be a risky strategy…
I think he mixes backhands so the other player doesn`t know what is coming. That make him unconfortable, so he can`t make deeper or heavier answer shots and Federer has the chance to turn to his forehand.
And i want to congratulate Will for the excelent web page. I`m coming to play again after 2 month because of a tennis elbow and the advices are great(sorry for my poor english, i am from Paraguay, South America, non englisspeaking country)
the second video is not popping out
I think this is good
mixing up slices and topspin gives federer more time to get into position for his next shot as it takes his opponent more time to get ready for the different shots.
nice
insideout is a good technique
Variety is absolutely a key word but in my opinion the reason why Federer often uses slice is that it doesn't give the opportunity to the opponent to play wide.Slice with its lower rebound, moreover in the center of the court, limits the angle of the shot, hence Federer has time to turn on the forehand and play an inside out/in.
When you slice the ball it stays relatively low, causing your opponent to really lift the ball, usually very loopy and slow, giving you time to run around and hit either an inside-out forehand, or a down-the-line forehand, or my personal favorite inside-out dropshot
It does also a wonderful job of pulling his opponent forward into the court. The problem off a short top spin shot is that it gives away a ball into the court which can be hit relativly flat by your opponent, but when the ball stays well underneath the level of the net, your opponent has to lift it up before even having it being pulled down by the top spin.
In most case, he is forced to hit a defensive shot and if we know a thing about tennis is that you cannot play defensivly inside the baseline – you are in position to attack. It often gets him short balls since his opponent are using mostly a right handed two handed backhand on that shot and a two handed backhand off a low ball is considerably hard to push over and over.
This also explains why it doesn't work against Nadal; the Spaniard being a lefty, Federer's slice ends up on his forehand. He could indeed slice down the line, but without mentioning the higher net and less distance he has to deal with, he would have to change the ball direction, often causing slides and mishits.
Seeing how important is that shot to Federer's attacking game and how he can open the court with his top spin backhand, we can fairly speak of this supposed weakness as being the “lesser of two evils.” The proof is made simply when he faces Rafael Nadal on lesser fast surfaces. Notice that when the sun shines and the clay becomes dry and faster, Nadal looses his this edge and Federer's game become more efficient.
very good Idea to alternate Shots with different Rotation, but only unexpected for oter Player
On faster and more sliding courts like hard courts in north america and faster grass courts, a slice stays lower and lesser pace is taken out of it… No one has time to run around a good slice on a hard court and if they do so, remember that they must hit so well as to give them the offensive edge or win the point right away since they are putting themselves out of position.
This is the problem, a two handed player will yell at you years before he makes contact that he is playing a slice shot; you have all the time on earth to cheat your position and wait for it. Also, being used to hit mostly top spin, they tend to only have the floating slice in their repertoire, not like Federer. He has a one handed backhand and it's harder to read because of that.
No one uses more slices than Federer… he plays with everything and you can be sure that he rarely gives you twice the same look.
He has been playing more top spin backhands since Melbourne; it allows him to keep that shot disguised more and to maintain the pressure more easily. The problem was obvious before: did you really wanted to face Federer's forehand when it was at its fullest pace? I bet even Söderling doesn't hit that hard and even Nadal cannot hit angles as well as Federer did.
His forehand is fearsome, probably still the best shot on the tour, and trying to avoid it makes you hit in more difficult areas, often giving the ball right back into Federer's hands. I am certain that he'll figure out quite soon that the down the line opens more often than it used to. It's easy to tell from here, watching him, but for him, getting about 2 seconds to react and play, it's hard to get the feel of when to go for it. He is Federer, but yet, since eh changes his play, the vision he gets changes… let him go, he'll find ways to play winners more often.
Also, Federer travels without a coach. He has some former pro players and good friends with him and that's about it.
During a backhand to backhand exchange Federer looks for an opening to use one of his winning shots, this being the inside out forehand. No matter which way you look at it this is a great shot to use during that kind of an exchange. I mean he's the one changing up the rally so in the mental game it's really going to affect his opponents. He's the one changing up the rally so he's the one being more aggressive so in effect he's going to probably end the point with a inside out with a monster angle. That's only if he hasn't won the point with his one handed backhand yet.
My answer on why the slice and topspin combo works better to set up an inside out forehand would simply be because of the slice it slef. we all no its harder to hit a topspin shot off of a good slice so you would slice back but by slicing it takes more time to reach federer so federer as time to run around and set up the inside out and even if he hits a topspin of the slice its still not going to be has fast becuase of feds slice. so thoose are my thoughts on the question.
My answer would be that, if you alternate between those 2, your opponent's returns will be less 'good' because you kind of get him out of his rythm, that way you can run around his ball more easily.
I think maybe versatility makes the opponent’s life hard, so that he has to play a little bit more conservative so as to avoid “unforced errors”, which in turn lets Federer more time to get around the ball and hit his Forehand more often.
I think that federer alternates slice/top spin BH to put th opponent in a bad position: the slice is gonna force the opponent to step up towards the base line, then the top spin is gonna make him go back and so on, until the opponent finds himself in an unconfortable position that will make him do a relatively bad shot, not deep, betwin the serve line and the base line, wich makes it easy for federer to turn over it and attack it with a FH.
← Previous Comments
Comments on this entry are closed.