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An hour after his third-round clash against familiar opponent Stan Wawrinka at Wimbledon, Novak Djokovic was smelling blood.
Deep in the second set of a match in control, Djokovic was watching the clock, finishing his match by the 11pm local time deadline. He didn’t let his chance go to waste, 0-30 ahead, Djokovic returned a body with interest, then played a delicious, deep backhand at the bottom line to open up the court. He followed it up with another chip, this time across the court, then hit a deep close-runner to send his reeling opponent chasing to a stalemate. By the time Wawrinka loosened his tie, he was down by two sets.
The Swiss fought valiantly to go into the third match, but Djokovic prevailed 6-3, 6-1, 7-6(5), marking the tenth anniversary of his recent defeat on Center Court with a dominant model victory.
Djokovic’s best surface may be hard courts, but on grass in SW19, where he has gone undefeated in a complete match since 2016, he has become an even greater force of dominance. Djokovic may be the most complete game on all surfaces, but the lack of a challenger is felt most intensely on the grass, where his younger opponent simply doesn’t have the array of weapons to excel on the surface – chief among them the slashing backhand. .
Defense and attack
For generations, air strike and first strike attacks have prevailed on the turf. Serves and forehands, soft hands at the net, and return positioning are analyzed with precision when it comes to playing on the grass. But, as base play has become more popular on the surface this century, the cut backhand has proven to be among the more important shots.
The neatly-manicured turf keeps ball bounce low, and flat grounders can glide and reach the receiver at high speeds. Then, the slide allows players not only to get the ball back in play, but also soften the force and acceleration of the shot, giving one time to get to a neutral position from a defensive position, and extract errors from big hitters by having them produce their own pace.
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic celebrates after defeating Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka in the men’s singles match on day five of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Friday, July 7, 2023.
On Friday, Djokovic used the shot very well in defense, holding off Wawrinka’s easy power. But he also used it to open up positions on the field to push away winners and disrupt his opponent’s rhythm. The shot came into play at each of the key moments—the set point in the first set, to set the set point in the second, three times in a tie-break.
Roger Federer’s use of a backhand on the lawn at Wimbledon is perhaps one of the most enduring images of his career. Federer loved the slice so much that, in his later years, he began to use it more on his forehand as well, not just as a defensive jab or volley, but by opening his stance—the stroke that would be at home on a court squash—and deepening with it to attack. Or set up a ball on the net.
Slide was the signature of Ash Barty, the now-retired former Wimbledon champion No. 1 and 2021, not only because she was good on defense but because of her massive range. She could knife the ball from any position on the court and hit it deep and flat, curled and spinned, or a classic shot.
Adjustments for accuracy
Although the power play has become the norm on the tour, the slide, being an all-court hit, is never entirely out of fashion. However, using it on grass can be challenging for those unaccustomed to the surface.
The turf season is only five weeks long, and it has been going on for years now. But with the rest of the tennis calendar increasingly bloated, players no longer need to have pedigree on this deck to get rankings and prize money. With fewer grass courts at lower-tier ITF and Challenger levels, players don’t get much surface experience in their formative years either.
New Age players employ biomechanical specialists to serve and forehand, but a stroke like the backhand requires equal attention to detail.
Setting up the slide requires the person to be in a comfortable position. But many modern-day players are accustomed to slipping to the ball on clay and hard courts, as opposed to slightly adjusting their movement—taking two or three small steps instead of sliding—on slippery grass, and not being allowed to be on the court. The best position to perform the stroke. The amount of rear lift when accelerating the slide gives you control over its depth and spin. But players who are not used to the low bounce of grass courts often misread the required bounce, and end up getting it wrong.
Historically, the backhand slice has not been part of Djokovic’s expertise. Even on the grass, sometimes, he’d rather slide into shots than take those extra small steps. But over time, he adapted to the circumstances, developing his game into one that could dominate the surface. If the rest of the chasing group wanted to have any chance of stopping him this coming week, they would have to show this steady development on their part.
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