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Spin and speed

Table of the average rally forehand for each of the ATP top 10, from contact to bounce: contact distance behind the baseline, ball speed, spin, net clearance and depth. Sinner hits it fastest (82 mph, 3,177 rpm); Medvedev makes contact furthest back (1.30m), hits slowest but one (75 mph) with less spin (2,453 rpm), yet clears the net by the most (76cm) and still lands it 3.67m from the baseline.

Anatomy of a forehand

Things like spin rates and groundstroke speed often get shown on broadcast but they're pretty incomplete in isolation.

September 20262 charts

Distribution of where Auger-Aliassime's and Djokovic's rally backhands land, from the net to beyond the baseline. Both make contact about 0.7m behind the baseline, but Auger-Aliassime's heavier, higher backhand (2,368 rpm, 0.83m over the net) lands at a median 7.9m against Djokovic's 8.4m, and he misses more into the net (6.3% against 4.6%) and long (6.6% against 4.4%).

The backhand consistency gap

A huge consistency gap downstream of backhand technique

July 2026