The Pro Return: The One Handed Backhand Drive

Is the key to the one-handed drive return to stand in with a short swing? Or to move back and swing more like a groundstroke?

Move forward before the split? Or back? Or split in place?

Should the first and second serve returns be similar? Or different? Should the contact point be at waist, or chest, or shoulder level? Should the player hit open stance? Or take a lunging cross step?

The answer to all these questions is yes. If we study the returns of Roger Federer, one of greatest one-handed returners of all time, we see he combines all these options in different ways at different times.

However, there are some constants across all his drive returns. This is a basic constellation of elements that one-handed players should understand and develop first in building great returns for themselves.

In the first two articles in this series, we looked first at pro forehand returns, first the classical drives (Click Here) and returns with more extreme grips. (Click Here.)

Now we’ll shift to the backhands. In this first article we’ll look at Federer and his classical one-handed drive returns. Then we’ll move on to the two-handed variations. After that we’ll also…