By Richard Pagliaro | Monday, August 29, 2016
"It's clearly a shot that can reset you, it can do a lot of things," Hall of Famer John McEnroe says about the recent resurgence of the slice backhand.
Photo credit: Christopher Levy; Mark Peterson/Corleve
NEW YORK—The backend of the major schedule has been a backhand boon time.
Little more than a half-century ago, Hall of Famer Cliff Drysdale became the first player with a two-handed backhand to advance to the US National final—now the US Open—where he fell to Manolo Santana in the 1965 final.
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These days, the man who made major two-handed backhand history believes we're witnessing the mini revival of the one-handed slice backhand.
ESPN analyst Drysdale points to Juan Martin del Potro's recent run to the Olympic silver medal in Rio where he used the low slice to set up his monstrous forehand and topple world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who owns one of the best two-handed backhand in the sport, as a sharp sign of a slice renaissance.
"I'm so fascinated by the fact that Juan MartÃn del Potro—here is a guy who is playing with 50 percent of what he used to have on one side of his body, the backhand side," Drysdale told the media in a conference call to promote the network's US Open coverage. "He's slicing the ball now for the most part. He'll hit two handed every so often. But we've sort of seen a mini come back of the sliced back hand, and I'm thrilled about it. I like it."
There was a time when slice was a scythe that cut through the field to the US Open final weekend almost annually.
A 39-year-old Ken Rosewall, widely regarded by many Hall of Famers as the patron saint of slice, reached the 1974 US Open final, falling to Jimmy Connors and his booming double-hander.
The 1979 final featuring New York natives John McEnroe against buddy Vitas Gerulaitis pitted two players who used the slice both as an attacking approach shot and as a defensive recovery shot.
Since then, US Open champions Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Pete Sampras, Patrick Rafter and five-time champion Roger Federer all deployed varying degrees of slice to great effect on the faster Flushing Meadows court.
Long-time rival Jimmy Connors said he regarded McEnroe's versatile backhand as a more dangerous weapon than his forehand.
The mercurial McEnroe says the slice is more than a chance to press the rally reset button—it's a tool to deconstruct towering power players by sliding the ball at shoelace level.
"I love the slice backhand. I used that quite extensively when I came in," McEnroe told the media in an ESPN conference call. "To think it would go away I think would be crazy. I think especially with bigger guys, if you can hit through the slice, keep it low, it's problematic for them to get down low for the ball. So to me it's a very effective shot."
Swiss Davis Cup teammates Federer and Stan Wawrinka have wielded slice to win Grand Slam titles, the Olympic doubles gold medal and Switzerland's first Davis Cup championship. Roberta Vinci used angled off-pace slice to deprive Serena Williams of pace and deny the world No. 1 the Grand Slam in the 2015 US Open semifinals.
Players ranging from Richard Gasquet to Dominic Thiem to new American No. 1 Steve Johnson to former Wimbledon semifinalist Grigor Dimitrov all frequently deploy slice.
Wimbledon champion Andy Murray possesses one of the most lethal slice backhands of current two-handers. Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Fabio Fognini and Alexander Dolgopolov are among the two-handers skilled playing one-handed slice.
"You notice even the two-handers have improved quite a bit," McEnroe said. "Nadal, obviously. Murray always had a good one. Djokovic has gotten a lot better. Roger's slice is arguably better than his topspin backhand. It's clearly a shot that can reset you, it can do a lot of things."
In today's heavy topspin game, McEnroe believes slice can not only gunk up the gears in power players' games it can mess with their minds, too.
"You try to get in the guy's head, you try to use it in certain situations," McEnroe said. "So to me, of course, absolutely. No guy wants to be predictable where you know what he's going to give you. So even if you can hit the ball harder than anyone, at times you have to mix it up, unless you can absolutely blow a hundred mile an hour fastball by someone every time."
In del Potro's case, increasing slice has health benefits diminishing shock and strain to his surgically-repaired left wrist. The 27-year-old Argentine has had four wrist surgeries in total—three on the left wrist and one on the right, including left wrist surgery in January and June of 2015.
Wrist pain and recovery prompted a profound change in del Potro's game. Early on in his comeback the slice was his primary backhand though recently he's hitting his two-handed topspin backhand more frequently.
"I'm just in awe of how del Potro has been able to come back basically on crutches when it comes to your tennis game," Drysdale said. "You lose one of your major shots, and usually it spells doom. So fascinated by how he's been able to do it."
Two-time US Open champion Nadal says the recent revival of the shot reinforces the fact modern players must be fluent in all shots and spins to play all-court tennis.
Mixing topspin and slice backhands gives a player more options, says Nadal, which translates to more solutions on court.
"It is another shot," Nadal said. "All the shots are important. And how many. If you have more options than you are a more complete player.
"It's important to have the possibility to have the slice backhand helped me during my career, helped me during the years and I think for del Potro, for sure (it) is helping him."
Patrick McEnroe points to former US Open champion Mats Wilander, who developed a one-handed slice as a defensive weapon to complement his two-handed topspin backhand, as the player who established how to use slice as a transitional tool.
"I think back to Mats Wilander when he beat Lendl in the US Open final. To me at least in the modern era, he was the best player with a great two-handed backhand that developed a slice," Patrick McEnroe said. "When I see young kids playing now, a lot of them that have great two-handed backhands, like the guys mentioned, Djokovic and Murray are two, they have pretty darn good slices that they can use to change the pace and approach, et cetera, and defend.
"Defending is probably as important as any other part of the game at the highest level of the men's game. I think it's almost become a necessary shot for the top players that have even great two-handed backhands."
Slice's edge is sharper when you can play topspin too, says Nadal.
"The slice backhand is important if you have a good topspin backhand," Nadal said. "If you only have slice backhand then you lose options."