The Federer and Alcaraz Dropshots Compared and Contrasted

Chris Lewit

Carlos Alcaraz has burst onto the pro scene and reached the highest levels of the game. His drop shot is superb and has been a major contributor to his recent success. We have never seen a player recently with such great creativity and skill on the drop shot—except perhaps Roger Federer.

Let's explore the drop shot of Alcaraz both technically and tactically and use the drop shot of Roger Federer for comparison and contrast.

The Forehand Grips

On the forehand wing, both Roger and Carlos, interestingly, have similar grip structures for their topspin strokes, closer to an eastern or composite eastern. In a personal interview, Antonio Cascales, founder and head of the JC Ferrero Equelite Academy where Alcaraz trains, says that Alcaraz has a conservative grip very close to Federer. That's important because it means that when Carlos attempts a drop shot he does not have to change his forehand grip much—if any—to facilitate the underspin shot.

The Backhand Grips

On the backhand side, obviously Federer has a one-hander and Alcaraz has a two-hander, but their drop shot grips are both continental with the dominant hand. Federer disguises his backhand drop shot to look the same as his slice, while incorporating a slightly more Eastern backhand grip for his topspin stroke.

Cascales, who was also the coach to former world number 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, reveals that Carlos does not typically change the grip from his topspin forehand stroke to his drop shot and that this makes the drop shot virtually unreadable—the rival can't see it coming.

If Alcaraz does occasionally shift the grip a little towards eastern or continental, it's a subtle shift and almost imperceptible. Federer, with a similar grip structure, has similar disguise on his forehand drop shot with minimal if any grip change to execute the shot.

Jose Higueras, Roger's former coach, and expert on the pro drop shot, says that the majority of pros on tour make a grip change on the forehand drop shot, especially the ones with a more western forehand grip. This makes sense because it is very awkward with a western grip to hit an underspin drop shot. Try it and you will probably feel how strange it feels and how difficult it is to open the racquet face.

Two Handed Disguise

Therefore, a more conservative forehand topspin grip closer to eastern definitely gives an advantage to the player vis-à-vis the drop shot disguise as compared to a more western grip. This is probably why Djokovic, Nadal, and a host of other tour players have better, more disguised drop shots on the two-handed backhand (where the dominant hand is already in a continental grip, ready to drop shot) rather than on their forehand side, which feature extreme semi-westerns and require a large grip change to execute the drop shot.

On the backhand side, both Alcaraz and Federer have tremendous disguise. Alcaraz uses the same grip with his lower dominant right hand on both topspin shots and underspin, so there is no grip change.

Alcaraz holds the dropshot to the last millisecond, taking the racquet back with two hands like a topspin stroke for maximum disguise a la Djokovic. Many top players on tour disguise the drop shot with two hands like Alcaraz and Djokovic.

Federer has no grip change between his slice and dropshot and a mild grip change from his topspin backhand to his dropshot.

8 Keys

Here are some helpful concepts that both Alcaraz and Federer demonstrate on their drop shots.

Minimize grip changes. As discussed above, make no grip changes or minimal imperceptible grip changes to maximize disguise. If you are trying to develop disguise yourself or with your students, this is often a challenging aspect of the drop shot to master.

Execute the drop shot when receiving slow to medium speed balls—rarely on very fast incoming balls. Watch carefully and you will see that Carlos and Federer typically attempt a drop shot on slow to medium speed incoming balls rather than fast balls. This improves their control of the shot.

Utilize the forehand inside out drop shot pattern. Alcaraz and Federer utilize an unusual and surprising pattern by often aiming the forehand drop shot inside out. This catches the opponent off guard and is very effective.

Develop the surprise forehand inside in drop shot. In addition to their go to inside out pattern, Alcaraz and Federer have a good inside in drop shot ready to go if the opponent is handling the inside out.

Stay away from the edges of the court. Watch the way Alcaraz and Federer aim their drop shots with margin, typically away from the sidelines. Sometimes they will be very aggressive and locate the drop shot near the line, but more often than not they aim the ball with safety.

That's a good lesson for everyone. Too many players try to make the drop shot too good and often miss in the alley as a consequence.

Use the classic backhand down the line dropshot. Alcaraz has an excellent backhand down the line drop shot that he disguises very well. Like Federer and Djokovic and other good two handed players, Alcaraz uses maximum disguise and no grip change with his dominant hand on backhand drop shot.

The down the line backhand drop shot is the first pattern I teach players who are learning to experiment with the dropshot. It's a fundamental tactical pattern.

Drop Shot Approach

Use the dropshot as an approach. The dropshot can make a fantastic entry to the net; it is an underrated approach shot.

After executing the dropshot, the player can move in to the midcourt or net and play a volley rather than groundstroke on the subsequent ball. A great strategy is to float to the midcourt after the dropshot and look to execute a volley lob over the opponent's head.

Understand the court geometry to optimize the drop shot but sometimes break the rules. In general, the best strategy is for the player to use the dropshot when he or she is inside the court. That's standard practice.

But the best drop shot players like Alcaraz and Federer bend and sometimes break the rules. I have had some top ranked players who occasionally drop shot successfully moving backwards and also on the run wide for example. While it's riskier, with risk sometimes comes great reward because the opponent will not expect a drop shot in those situations.

The Drop shot fits the personality of aggressive and creative players. While Antonio Cascales and his team insist that the drop shot is merely a “circumstantial" shot for Alcaraz and not his main strength, nevertheless, Carlos has used the shot to keep his opponents off balance and cause significant damage.

The drop shot makes Alcaraz's power forehand better because opponents have to compensate their court position when defending against him. The same is true in Federer's game. Like Federer, Alcaraz has an aggressive and creative mindset on the court and the drop shot fits into his style and personality very well.

If you or your students are similarly wired, they may learn to love the drop shot too. If you are not sure whether the drop shot is right for your game, check out this helpful short video from my YouTube channel on this topic.

Vamos!