U.S. Open Player Spin (Page 6)

Most of the top players we filmed, both men and women, drove the ball with topspin on their backhands whenever possible. However, players employed slice or underspin in various situations, for defense, or for approach shots to keep the ball low when going to the net.

Physicist Howard Brody has pointed out that generating slice requires only about half the racket head speed compared to hitting topspin, because the player is not required to change the direction in which the ball is spinning. The oncoming ball bounces off the court with topspin, spinning from top to bottom as it comes toward the player. When a player returns the ball with a slice shot the direction in which the ball spins around the axis of rotation is maintained. The direction of the shot changes, but the ball continues to spin from top to bottom, from the player's perspective as it moves away from the player.

For this reason, it was not surprising to find that in general players hit their slice backhands with more outgoing spin than their topspin shots. The topspin range for the men's players was 1250rpm to 2382rpm, while the slice shots for 10 different players averaged from 2127rpm to 3244rpm.

Men's Underspin Backhands

On the men's side, Jim Courier for example, hit 2 slice shots that averaged 3244rpm, more than twice the spin of his 2-handed topspin, which averaged 1606rpm. Michael Chang was a similar case. We measured 3 Chang slice backhands that averaged 2813rpm, again roughly twice the spin as on his two-handed topspin shot.

Shot: Men's Underspin Backhands

Player:	No. of Backhand	RPM Range:	Avg RPM:
Jim Courier	2	3000-3488rpm	3244rpm
Michael Chang	3	2586-3125rpm	2813rpm
Todd Martin	2	2500-3000rpm	2750rpm
Andre Agassi	1	2727rpm	2727rpm
Sergi Bruguera	1	2726rpm	2726rpm
Mark Philippousis	3	2143-3333rpm	2659rpm
Tim Henman	6	1579-3000rpm	2398rpm
Tomas Muster	2	1875-2830rpm	2353rpm
Petr Korda	7	2143-2500rpm	2320rpm
Pete Sampras	3	1500-2500rpm	2127rpm

Women's Underspin Backhands

On the women's side we were able to record fewer examples, but the results were consistent with the men's. Possibly because of the reduced racket head speed required, the women seemed capable of generating as much slice as the men players. Jana Novotna, known for her one-handed slice backhand, recorded the highest underspin rate of any player, with two hits that averaged 3375rpm. 3 other slice backhands recorded by 3 different players averaged 2298rpm. This was more than a third more spin than the topspin backhands hit by Venus Williams, who led the women with an average of 1429rpm when she hit with topspin.

Shot: Women's Underspin Backhands

Player:	No. of Backhand	RPM Range:	Avg RPM:
Jana Novotna	2	3000-3750rpm	3375rpm
Irena Spirlea	1	2727rpm	2727rpm
Monica Seles	1 (2H)	2500rpm	2500rpm
Mary Jo Fernandez	1	1667rpm	1667rpm