Tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou recently broke down what makes Novak Djokovic’s backhand so great and impressive.
Djokovic, a 20-time Grand Slam champion, is one of the most complete players in tennis history.Ā
However, the things that stood out with Djokovic are his backhand and return.Ā
“Novak Djokovic has one of the best two-handed backhands in tennis,” Mouratoglou said in a video posted on his YouTube channel. “Let’s take a deeper look at why his backhand has no limits. First, he prepares very early – fast and super compact. This allows him to effectively counterpunch and change directions, no matter the speed of the ball. Now look at his feet, he steps forward into the court and has a very large and strong base – which allows him to take maximal energy from the ground.”
Mouratoglou: Djokovic’s follow through is impressiveĀ
“Notice here that he’s using a closed stance (refering to a video of Djokovic hitting a backhand in practice),” Mouratoglou continued. “He’s able to do that effectively because he’s right eye dominant, meaning he can still see the ball and the court very well from this position. He starts the motion with his weight on the back foot and then he transfers to his front foot.
“When the ball bounces, he starts to swing his racket forward, the racket head drops below the height of his wrist – notice how his wrist completely drops – allowing the hand to work. Novak’s follow-through is impressive, look how far in front he goes with his arms. His left arm is fully extended, long after the contact. This also shows how much he is using his left hand.”
Meanwhile, Djokovic is set to kick off his clay season at the Monte Carlo Masters.Ā
Djokovic has played in only one event so far in 2022 but that is set to change as he is expected to ba allowed to play the majority of events during the clay season.