Follow us on Google Discover Roger Federer sparked debate recently with his controversial comments about court conditions on the ATP Tour.
Speaking to Andy Roddick, Federer suggested that event organizers had changed the surfaces of their courts to encourage Carlos Alcaraz vs Jannik Sinner finals.
“That’s what the tournament directors think, ‘I kind of like [Jannik] Sinner and [Carlos] Alcaraz in the finals, you know, it kind of works for the game’,” he said.
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World number three Alexander Zverev agreed with Federer and had this to say during the Shanghai Masters.
“I hate when it [the court conditions] is the same. I think the tournament directors are going towards that direction because they want Jannik [Sinner] and Carlos [Alcaraz] to do well at every tournament, and that’s what they prefer,” said Zverev.
Several other big names have since weighed in on the debate, including a former Grand Slam quarterfinalist, who spoke exclusively to The Tennis Gazette.
Ronald Agenor doesn’t think the courts are any slower now than when Roger Federer was playing
Haiti’s Ronald Agenor, a quarterfinalist at the 1989 French Open, shared his thoughts on whether the courts have been slowed down to favor Alcaraz and Sinner.
“The courts have been slowing down for quite some time; this is not new,” said Agenor.
“Even when he [Roger Federer] was playing, the courts were pretty slow. I don’t think they are any slower than they were when he was playing.”
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Agenor proceeded to suggest that the court conditions are somewhat irrelevant in today’s game, as everyone plays the same style of tennis.
“When you go to academies or you see players training, all they do is hit forehands and backhands all day, and they work on fitness. So, the way that the players train right now, most of them are doing the same thing, and the same in women’s tennis,” he said.
“Of course, if you had more courts that were a little faster, that would help the guys that want to serve and volley, but I’m not sure because on fast courts, players still work the same style of play.”
The 60-year-old believes the death of the one-handed backhand has played a role in the development of the modern hard-hitting baseline game.
“The one-hander has disappeared… It’s obviously easier for a one-hander to be a purely attacking player than a guy who has a two-hander,” said Agenor.
ATP RankNameCountryCareer titles8Lorenzo MusettiItaly223Denis ShapovalovCanada424Stefanos TsitsipasGreece1232Grigor DimitrovBulgaria937Giovanni Mpetshi PerricardFrance251Daniel AltmaierGermany–69Aleksandar KovacevicUSA–Top 100 players with a one-handed backhand
“This was the shot that players were using the most to come to the net.
“Also, the volleys, when you had a one-handed backhand, it was easier to volley.”
Agenor understands why the game has changed, but he is hopeful that a more ‘exciting’ brand of tennis will soon appear on tour.
“If you have the same format in academies or coaches… You can only teach what you know. If you don’t know how to use a one-handed backhand, you’re not going to help a young player work on their one-handed backhand,” he said.
“However, I think we are going to see some new players doing a little bit of everything, which will be more exciting.
“Instead of having the same two guys winning everything. Before it was three, some say it was four with Andy Murray, but if you look at all four, they all had a different way of playing tennis; that’s the beauty of the game, there’s more than one way to play the game.”
Agenor certainly wants to see the one-handed backhand return, and had an interesting suggestion on how that could happen…
Bringing back wooden rackets could encourage one-handed backhands – Ronald Agenor
The former world number 22 revealed that he has been playing with wooden rackets recently, a piece of equipment that is well-suited to the one-handed backhand.
“For the last few weeks I’ve been playing with wood rackets again, it’s a joy out of this world,” said Agenor.
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Agenor thinks changes would need to be made for wooden rackets to work in today’s game, but believes they could aid the revival of the one-handed backhand.
“The problem is, the way they hit the ball, they might break it, but they can reinforce the wood,” he said.
“I think it would bring a little bit more art to the game. Maybe we will get more players hitting one-handed backhands!”
Frenchman Yannick Noah famously won Roland Garros with a wooden racket in 1983 and is the last player to win a major title with that type of racket.
Whether the stars of the ATP Tour will pick up wooden rackets again in the future remains to be seen, but the likelihood is that we will see the big names stick with modern technology for now.