“The report of my death was an exaggeration.”
Thus wrote Mark Twain when asked to comment on reports that he was on his deathbed.
The demise of one of tennis’s most elegant shots, the single-handed backhand, has been predicted with increasing frequency since the likes of Jimmy Connors and Bjorn Borg began to win Grand Slam titles with the double handed version.
And certainly it has become the exception rather than the rule, the preserve, as often as not, of the more mature men (and women—witness the evergreen Roberta Vinci, last year’s US Open runner-up and into the quarters here again).
The most successful one on the tour belongs to 35-year-old Roger Federer, while fellow top-20 colleagues Stan Wawrinka, Feliciano Lopez, Richard Gasquet and Pablo Cuevas are all now in the their 30s.
But there seem always to be a few younger players eager to fly the one-handed flag. Notable this week has been Briton Dan Evans, age 26, and 25-year-old Grigor Dimitrov, two among seven in the bottom half of this year’s US Open draw to make the third round.
And as the numbers have been whittled down to the eight, each of the four matches featured a man with a single-handed backhand.
Dimitrov, who as a youngster admired Federer and his backhand, was set to take on Andy Murray in the night session, and he was not without some success against the No2 seed. Three times in nine he had won, including their last meeting in Miami this year.
The oldest man remaining in the draw, No21 seed Ivo Karlovic, has used his remarkable 6ft 11in frame to serve and volley his way through an 18-year career, his old-style tennis helped by the reach and flexibility of the one-handed backhand, not to mention the ease with which it can be used to chip and charge. One of the reasons, too, that Federer’s mature tennis has reaped rewards for his increasingly forward-moving game.
Karlovic, of course, gains most of his game’s potency from his serve, and hit a tournament record 61 aces in his first-round win here. Before New York, indeed, he ensured a seeding with back-to-back finals in Newport and Washington, winning the former. He then won in Los Cabos to become the oldest player in the top 20 since 1978. Now he was into his first US Open fourth round.
The dice had fallen well for him, with no seeds to contend with until today, but that would be No6 seed Kei Nishikori, a former finalist here.
The youngest of the one-handed quartet, and most recent addition to the top 10, was Dominic Thiem. He reached his career-high No7 in June after reaching the French Open semi-final.
As Thiem’s physical endurance and wide-armed powerhouse of a backhand improved, so did his results. But four titles this year and a tour-leading 69 matches were taking a toll. He celebrated his 23rd birthday week by coming back from a set down to beat Pablo Carreno Busta, and now he took on former champion Juan Martin del Potro.
The big Argentine has gradually been making his way back from many wrist injuries, and even needed a wild card to get into the main draw here, but this popular player is always an asset, and showed all his old form in beating Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal at the Rio Olympics, before pressing Murray hard in the gold medal match too.
He was, in fact, the only man among today’s eight who had met and beaten any seeds, first No19 Steve Johnson and then No11 David Ferrer. But he suffered the first break, before gradually unwinding his infamous forehand to break back.
The Austrian focused his attention on the backhand, but there has been one benefit from del Potro’s long rehabilitation. He has added a one-handed version of the backhand, and with it a fine slice and an ability and willingness to come to the net to finish.
His first point, indeed, was a serve and charge, and as he broke back and held for 4-3, this old favourite had the crowd chanting his name. Able to respond on both wings, he forced Thiem into errors, and the Austrian began to look physically uncomfortable. A love hold from del Potro, and he had the first set, 6-3, in just 38 minutes. He had made seven of eight net points.
Thiem was in trouble, though. Del Potro broke in the third game of the second, set, and after the fifth game, the young player needed treatment to his right knee. He managed just a couple more points before throwing in the towel, 2-3, and that meant del Potro became the lowest-ranked US Open quarter-finalist, at No174, since 1991.
The 27-year-old del Potro is playing here for the first time since 2013, so it is little wonder he is thrilled by every moment.
“Well, I was close to retiring before my third surgery, but after that I always believed in myself to come back. And after [surgery], everything changed, and now I’m here. I’m playing free. I don’t have any big problems in my wrist, and that’s important”
He added of that interesting backhand evolution: “Yeah, I would like to improve my backhand as well. I think with that change, my slices, my volley is improve a lot, because normally I didn’t use that shot and now I’m using very often. But in the future, if can combine slices and volleys with my old backhand, would be more dangerous for my game and I will be comfortable with all the weapons.”
So one Grand Slam champion was through, and he would next play another. Wawrinka is a former champion in Australia and Roland Garros, and was starting to show all the signs of the form that won him both. He was also twice a quarter-finalist and twice more a semi-finalist in New York.
Wawrinka also owns perhaps the most admired one-handed backhand in tennis for its power, precision and match-winning potential, and he was expected to have few problems against No63 ranked Illya Marchenko after the Ukrainian got a pass from two sets to one up with the retirement of Nick Kyrgios.
Sure enough, the Swiss took a straightforward two sets lead in little more than an hour. When Marchenko took a time out for knee treatment, that seemed like the last straw.
Wawrinka broke in the seventh game, and served for the set, only to make a slew of errors for the break back. It would take a tie-break, and a tetchy Wawrinka could not subdue the attack of his revitalised opponent. He lost the set, 7-6(5), and after conceding a break in the third game of the fourth set, he smashed his racket to smithereens.
The release of tension helped, the Swiss refocused, and he broke twice to seal the win, 6-3.
Wawrinka has lost his last four matches to del Potro, including their most recent at Wimbledon. Yet the Argentine insisted the Swiss was now the favourite: “He will be the favourite to win, but anything can happen in this event for me. I got the power from the crowd in every match, and that’s helped me a lot to fight and to play my best tennis.”
It really could be anyone’s match.