Thiem forehand change.

[J011yroger]

Anybody else notice he changed his takeback?

Now tip up like Fed instead of forward.

J

[seano]

J011yroger -

Very interesting observation. It certainly looks like Thiem is now taking a more "traditional" approach to his type 3 forehand. His elbow doesn't appear to be raising up nearly as high in the backswing as it was previous. I couldn't find Thiem's forehand in the high speed achives on Tennisplayer, so I looked on Youtube. Thiem's 2017 forehand definitely had a larger, more complicated backswing. He would elevated his elbow significantly and point the top of the racquet head towards the net. In the 2019/2020 version, his elbow is much calmer and doesn't elevate nearly as high and his racquet head is more vertical. Good find.

Sean

[stotty]

It's a good move. His forehand looks less complex, more efficient. I only saw the first set against Nadal but from what I saw he out-bludgeoned Nadal and was hitting his forehand extremely well.

[arturohernandez]

Thiem did say that he had to shorten his backswings for hard courts. Maybe the shortening up has become permanent.

[stroke]

Thiem still has a bit too much head movement in his swing a contact to me, but he does appear to have adjusted his forehand technique for the better. Interestingly, the announcers(Chris Fowler, who said this had been pointed out to him by Brad Gilbert's son) noted that at contact a lot of times, Thiem actually has shut his eyes at contact. They showed a still shot to confirm this. Very unusual.

[jeffreycounts]

Thiem actually has shut his eyes at contact. They showed a still shot to confirm this. Very unusual.

So much for "keep your eye on the ball'. I heard Serena talking (in her Masterclass Course) about how are father was always yelling at her to "keep her on the ball" but she said she never really does that and just ignored him. Possible candidate for a John "Myth" article?

[klacr]

Anybody else notice he changed his takeback?

Now tip up like Fed instead of forward.

J

Video? side by side comparison?

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Delray Beach
SETS Consulting

[nytennisaddict]

i'm impressed you noticed! i hadn't... like kyle requested... do you happen to have a side by side?