Good morning. As the U.S. Open kicks off, we’re exploring a tennis technique that has quietly gone extinct.
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Some athletes don’t just win — they do so looking like artists. There is grace, economy, even magic in their movement. Think of Nadia Comaneci, Lionel Messi, Alysa Liu, Muhammad Ali. The archetypal example from tennis is Roger Federer, but he’s not the only one. Tennis is a sport where certain players are described as balletic. Why is that? One reason is the one-handed backhand. When Federer struck it, he began with his back to the net and then unfurled like a fiddlehead fern, ending with his arms wide as if to say to his opponent: I dare you to answer. It was gorgeous to watch, especially as he danced across the base line to prepare the shot. The one-hander was once common. Now, though, it’s going extinct. The U.S. Open, which starts today, features only two men and two women in the top 50 who use it. So far, this is the first year since 1877 in which no one-handers have made it to the semifinals of a Grand Slam. “Players are getting stronger and whacking the hell out of the ball,” said Ava Wallace, who covers tennis for The Athletic, our sports publication. “You need two hands!” What happened to the fine touch? Modern rackets. They’re now made of graphite and contain polyester strings, not just the springy animal guts (yes, really) that were threaded into old wooden rackets. That lets players put enormous topspin on the ball. It hits the ground and then arcs up high, where it’s tough to reach. A two-hander is much better at corralling a ball at shoulder height or above, especially if it’s rotating at thousands of revolutions per minute. The one-handed backhand is hit from the waist. (This is how Rafael Nadal’s topspin-heavy forehand confounded Federer’s backhand for years.) Serve speeds. They’ve gotten faster, and now the biggest servers can fire 150 m.p.h. missiles that leave the returner less than half a second to react with a defensive shot. Two hands give more control under pressure. (Maybe not to my backhand, but the pros seem to manage.) The pipeline. “Nowadays, probably the coaches are mostly double-handed players, and it’s just easier to teach a kid,” Federer told The Athletic last week. It doesn’t require as much shoulder rotation or wrist strength to get the ball back. This happens in sports: New tech and new tactics supersede the old ways. Basketball centers no longer use the hook shot; football teams abandoned the drop kick. Tennis has changed a lot, too. At most tournaments, computers, not line judges, say when a ball is out of bounds. Tweaks to hard courts, grass courts and tennis balls have slowed the pace of the game, making rallies longer and rewarding stamina and athleticism as players wallop the ball from the base lines. The serve-and-volley format is dead. The result is a game that is more powerful, more flexible, more attacking. But it is also less artful, less exquisite. For my money, the best practitioner of the one-hander now is an Italian named Lorenzo Musetti, the world No. 14. Shots like his “hearken back to a slower and more beautiful game,” Wallace says. Sign up for the Grand Slam Briefing, a terrific daily blast of news, analysis and gossip from The Athletic. It comes only during the four major tournaments each year. What to know about the Open
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Dolly Parton was a drag queen. That’s what made her so human and approachable, Rhonda Garelick writes. Democrats have an identity problem, Lydia Polgreen writes. The solution: Focus on character. Get access to five locked games. Save 75% on your first year of a New York Times Games subscription. Get full access to Wordle, Spelling Bee, Crossplay, the Crossword and more.
We’ve made these links free for you. Burial style: For these Ghanaians, funerals are raucous community events — and coffins are over-the-top fashion statements. Seeking sharks: Great whites are becoming a common sight on Cape Cod. Rather than scaring away visitors, their presence has attracted a new type of tourist: the shark-watcher. Early dinner: Spaniards are increasingly abandoning their traditional late-night dinners for earlier hours, seeking better sleep and healthier routines. Scotland: See a (very posh) summer camp for grown-ups.
“I’m the first one who’s going to order a roast chicken in a restaurant. I really don’t like complicated food, and I don’t like tasting menus.”— Ina Garten, in conversation with Lulu Garcia-Navarro. She spoke about cooking, growing up with a difficult mother and surrounding herself with people who support her. Read the whole thing here.
It’s rare to see a book review in The Times as unequivocal as the one we just published of Marlon James’s “The Disappearers” — a novel about gay experience and murderous homophobia in Jamaica and elsewhere during the 1980s and ’90s. “James has written a masterpiece, the novel of the decade and possibly of the century thus far,” Dwight Garner, a critic, writes. He goes on to compare James to Salman Rushdie, Toni Morrison and William Faulkner. Read the full review and an interview with James.
Spend a perfect bibliophile afternoon in Prospect Heights and Park Slope with this walking tour of bookstores and reading spots. Don’t wait for Labor Day deals. Some of the best sales are already here. Skip the string floss, if it’s not working. Invest in a great water flosser. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
