‘I Would Teach My Kids double-handed Backhand’- Federer

Roger Federer has one of the most beautiful single handed backhands in the sport. Only a handful of others can produce the kind of magic that he does on his backhand. However, the Swiss maestro does not want his children to learn a single handed backhand. ‘From moving now on forward we will see double-handed backhands predominantly, which is how I would teach my kids, as well, to play tennis’, said Federer.

 ‘I think it’s just easier. Double-handed backhand, you can always fight a wrong position with the left hand, let’s say, if you’re a right-hander.’

Despite rooting for a double-handed backhand the Swiss maestro, hopes that single-handed backhands don’t die down in the long run. ‘I think it just looks nice, a one-handed backhand’,  he said. Federer also added, ‘I think a double-hander is the way to go, but I hope it’s not a dying breed, you know’.

However, despite the short comings of a single handed backhand, there are youngsters who are still willing to choose a single-handed backhand over a double-handed one. Dominic Thiem, Grigor Dimitrov and Denis Shapovolov are just a handful of names, who have chosen a single-handed backhand.

‘You mentioned Thiem, Gasquet, Stan, they all look good, those one-handed backhands, especially if there is power and in defense it looks great. Grigor, same thing’, said Federer. ‘So it’s nice to see Denis also keeping that alive and same with Thiem and young guys coming up that it’s still going.’

‘But I think we will always be outnumbered from this point moving forward’, he added. ‘Unfortunately Björn Borg had too big of an impact on this game. He just doesn’t know it sometimes (smiling).’

Federer, who has skipped the Rogers Cup, is back in Cincinnati currently, and is gearing up for a busy week, as he looks to hold firm his grip on the second place in the ATP singles rankings.