Eastern European Men and their Two-Handed Backhands

[lukman41985]

The bent/bent configuration on the two-handed backhand is rare amongst men and much more common with women. However, I think Ivanisevic (see attached images) must have been pretty influential. The trend seems to be that Eastern European men employ the bent/bent configuration on the two-handed backhand. Check out the videos of these guys. Also notice the attached images of Hernych, Tursunov, and Stepanek. Berdych and Safin tend to be more versatily in their hitting arm combinations. From what I've seen of Karol Beck he always hit with a bent/straight configuration (see last image).
Cilic:

Djokovic:

Davydenko:

Hrbaty:

Ancic:

Novak:

[lukman41985]

Adding more Top 140 Eastern European men

Andreev, Korolev (young Russian phenom), Tipsarevic, Vanek, Kunitsyn

[lukman41985]

One more that is part of the trend (Kubot); a diamond in the rough that bucks the trend (Labadze, what a gem this guy is!)

This is really interesting. Out of the top 140 Eastern European men in the world, less than a handful (Berdych and Safin, but only sometimes, and Beck and Labadze) use the much more hitting arm combination of bent/straight, or even straight/straight (ala Kafelnikov, who had a great backhand, better than Ivanisevic), or flex/flex (ala Dementieva).

Perhaps this has nothing to do with Goran. To really find out, we need to ask someone who'd know. Do we have any Eastern European coaches on the board? Is this part of the instructional dogma?

Perhaps these men would have higher rankings if they employed a different configuration seeing as how most men naturally take to the other configurations?