Roger Federer criticized the one-handed backhand’s declining popularity in a recent interview, noting that it isn’t among the top 10 ATP players currently.
The 20-time Grand Slam winner questioned the dominance of baseliners on the circuit and the lack of diversity in playing styles in the modern game. Federer claims that there isn’t much variation in the game these days; his intention while on tour was to change things up.
Federer expressed his thoughts about it in a recent interview and said: “What we get more and more nowadays is that I wish that sometimes we had a little bit more variety, and also back and forth to the net a little bit more, not just side to side. We’ll see where the game goes. But obviously, the problem is that when you have a lot of similar players playing against each other, a lot of the points end up being played similarly.”
The Swiss superstar also revealed that he had always used the tactic of varying his shots during games to throw off his opponent’s rhythm.
He further said: “And my goal on the tour was always—similarly, playing every point against my opponent is what he wants. What he doesn’t want is for me to mix it up and have variety. So for me, seeing two guys play against each other and have 20 of the same points back to back, come on. It can be very interesting. It’s like an arm wrestle. But I like to say, ‘Let’s not enter the arm wrestle. Let’s enter another game.”