New Racquet= New Backhand= New Roger?

Here we have Roger at the 2011 Australian Open. Ever since Roger’s rise to the top his backhand has always been a questionable strength. Nadal would only make this slight weakness even more prominent with his high spin forehand to Roger’s backhand side. In the video above we can make out that most of Roger’s backhand contact points are when the ball is on the way down, and he often makes contact below waist level. These backhands wouldn’t exactly qualify as ‘late’ but they are by no means as aggressive as Roger’s forehand, in which he takes the ball on the rise, with more of his body weight into the ball. One of the most obvious reasons for these tendencies was Roger’s small racquet head size, which was at 90 square-inches. It is not that Roger didn’t try to be aggressive, but when he did it would lead to miss-hits and shanks, especially when facing extreme topspin players like Nadal.

Federer has recently changed his racquet to the 97 square-inch size, and even though he is not playing the French Open, it seems like the new racquet has resulted in a new backhand.

As seen throughout 2017, in Indian Wells and the Australian Open, Federer’s backhand has been, in no lesser terms, poppin. When once before Roger’s backhand used to be a weakness, or at least a safe spot to hit the ball because you knew Roger would dictate the point with his forehand, opponents now no longer have that reprieve.

He’s taking the ball on the rise, the body momentum into the ball is significantly more than before, and he’s taking more backhands inside the baseline. It seems like the new racquet really did result in a new backhand, because it gave Roger the confidence he needed to be aggressive from both wings, and at Roger’s level everything has a butterfly effect. An improvement in the backhand leads to more confidence, which leads to the leeway to take more risks with the forehand; risks that can be taken with a calmer mind, leading to a higher success rate.

The effects of Roger’s racquet change cannot be made any more obvious. Let’s see how far Roger can go with this newly upgraded weapon.