Can You Recognize These Players by Their Grips?

[jimlosaltos]

Your responses to the forum discussion on the wide variety of grips used by the ATP's own ranking of the 5 best forehands on tour, led us to revive an old Tennisplayer.net feature. We'll be doing a series of Tour Portraits on top players' grips for a variety of strokes.

Meanwhile, can you identify the player by their grip in each of these blow ups? All were active in pro tennis this year. All but one is top 10 on ATP or WTA but that person reached world number 4.

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[jimlosaltos]

Here are your answers:

1 Rublev
2 Sabalenka
3 Medvedev
4 Alcaraz
5 Nishikori
6 Swiatek
7 Sinner (Yes, that's a volley grip)

For more see this month's Tour Portrait entitled Pro Grip Series: ATP Forehands

The images these zoomed selections come from appear in this month's Tour Portrait: Grip Series: ATP Forehands, OR in subsequent month's if it's in the other categories.

[doctorhl]

Interesting! I used to teach players to identify the opponent's service grip prior to serving and understand the ball direction/ spin charateristics available with each grip. Same with groundstrokes. Only a few understood the need.

[jimlosaltos]

Interesting! I used to teach players to identify the opponent's service grip prior to serving and understand the ball direction/ spin charateristics available with each grip. Same with groundstrokes. Only a few understood the need.

Thanks for sharing that. I've often wondered what pros look for to give them clues on what their opponents are doing. An under-discussed skill of the top pros seems to be how good their vision is.

Tangentially, I remember Vic Braden, I think it was, decades ago used laser tracking to follow player's eyes, to see what cues they picked up on.
But the results were odd. One player would follow an approach to the net and his eyes were up in the trees, yet he kept anticipating the pass.
Braden asked him why and he said "As soon as he takes the racket back I know where he's going to hit it. I guess my eyes wander after that".