Interactive Forum: June 2013: Marcelo Rios Two-Handed Backhand

[johnyandell]

Florian, Agreed!

[klacr]

Speaking of Marcelo Rios, I remember an interesting quote that Australian Open winner Thomas Johansson said years ago... The Swede shared a story of Rios when asked about a funny tennis memory...

“A player that I really liked to watch was Rios. I think he was one of the best players, ever. Because I remember one year when he was gonna play Thomas Muster in Rome. And I saw the press conference before the match. And they asked him, so how are you gonna be able to beat Muster, because he only had lost one or two matches on clay so far. And Rios said, ‘The guy should be happy if he gets like a couple of games.’And Rios went out there the next day and killed him, 1 and 2. And that’s for me unbelievable. I really liked to watch him. I didn’t like to play him though. But I really liked to watch him.”

When asked why he didn’t enjoy the experience of playing Rios, Johansson said:
“He could make you feel like it was the first time you were standing on a tennis court, you know [smiling]? So I hated to play him. You could get killed by him easily, 1 and 1 or something like that, and you could have played a good match.”

Funny, that last quote is what some players said about Federer as well.


Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[dyayo79]

Are you guys serious saying this a good model for rec players to follow? Hahahhah, this is the one of the best two handers and gifted players in the history. This model is for EVERYBODY to follow. His timing is perfect. I see all these juniors with big swings on their backhands and they can't time it.

[johnyandell]

dyayo,

well said.

john yandell

[jeffsalzenstein]

Rios is a Genius..

Is Rios the modern day McEnroe. Johnny Mac is still causing people fits with his ability to take the ball early.

Rios did the same thing with a semi western grip on the forehand and a straight take back on the two hander.

His swings allowed him to take the ball early and on the rise.

Maybe we should consider following his stroke model for more players?

[worldsbesttenniscoach]

Rios's 2-fister looks pretty good to me!!

On today's pro circuits, WTA & ATP, most players are similar on their 2-handed topspin backhands. They have compact, efficient strokes that are in many ways superior to their forehands. However, most of the pros today blow too many of these backhands by overemphasizing racket head speed & wild follow throughs completely over their shoulders or down their backs.

How often have we seen Djokovic & Murray, for instance, throw away points with wild finishes to their backhand swings? (MANY times.) In comparison, in situations where they hit their 2-handers with no follow through at all, they often hit screaming winners with surprising pace & angles.

If the follow through is too wild, then in effect the player is disrespecting contact point (the most important part of the swing). It's not just those 2 highly ranked players who throw away points with wildness on the follow through. The top women (Williams, Wozniacki, et al.) often do it, too, as do lower-ranked men & women. Pros throwing away points with wild backhand follow throughs is epidemic now on the ATP & WTA tours.

MY POINT is that with his backhand, Rios blasts the ball, but does not lose control of his stroke on the follow through. Rios has everything going for him on his 2-fister -- power, control, consistency.