A stroke of genius

The picture had been chosen for its utterly gratuitous depiction of female beauty. It showed Justine Henin, the Belgian tennis player who won seven grand-slam singles titles between 2003 and 2007. She was fully dressed for tennis. The gratuitous beauty came from the shot she was playing. It was a single-handed backhand.

Henin was five foot six and so slim she had to run round and round in the shower to get wet. She didn’t look capable of hitting the top off a dandelion. But that backhand regularly devastated opponents, fizzing down the line with astonishing power — where did that come from? — or howling across court at a quite preposterous angle.

But now, as we enter the Australian Open, the first grand-slam tournament of the year, it’s clear that the single-handed backhand is becoming extinct. Practically all the women and a clear majority of the men prefer to put both hands on their rackets and take a great meaty axe-murderer swipe at the ball.

Roger Federer still plays the single–fister, and does so as beautifully as he plays every other shot, including patting the ball back to the ballboy. But Federer is 33 and in decline, and the shot is declining with him.

Stan Wawrinka, another Swiss player, also plays the one-hander and it has taken him to the highest levels of the sport. But he has few imitators. The New York Times worked out that there are only three women in the top 100 with a single-handed backhand, and 24 in the men’s — most at the wrong end of a career.

This is a sad thing because it’s a lovely shot to watch. There is an aesthetic pleasure in watching all sports — why else do we have goal-of-the-month competitions? People purr about Moeen Ali’s cover drive (when it works) and David Gower is still celebrated for the loveliness of his batting style.