{"id":7412,"date":"2022-06-10T13:36:53","date_gmt":"2022-06-10T13:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toomanyrackets.com\/?p=7412"},"modified":"2023-11-08T11:10:19","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T11:10:19","slug":"backhand-speeds-in-pro-tennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toomanyrackets.com\/backhand-speeds-in-pro-tennis\/","title":{"rendered":"Backhand Speeds in Pro Tennis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article looks at how fast professional tennis players on the ATP<\/a> and WTA<\/a> Tours hit their backhands on average, and find out who hits the fastest backhand in tennis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data for the backhands detailed below were mostly sourced from stats released by the tournament organizers at the 2021 Australian Open<\/a> in relation to the top 10 average speeds and top 10 fastest speeds for backhands that were recorded at the 2021 tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will also look at how fast top tennis players like Alexander Zverev<\/a>, Rafael Nadal<\/a>, and the recently retired Roger Federer<\/a> hit their backhands on average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Average<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Average Backhand Speeds in Tennis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The average speed of backhands in men’s tennis is between 65 and 80 Mph<\/strong> while the average speed in women’s tennis is slightly lower at between 60 and 75 Mph<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Men’s Tennis<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Nikoloz Basilashvili<\/strong> had the fastest average speed in the below list with an average of 79.6mph with his two handed backhand<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fastest one handed backhand player<\/a> on the list is Dominic Thiem with an average speed of 69.4mph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ATP Player<\/th>One or Two Handed?<\/th>Speed (km\/h)<\/th>Speed (mph)<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Nikoloz Basilashvili*<\/td>Two<\/td>128.1<\/td>79.6<\/td><\/tr>
Pedro Sousa*<\/td>Two<\/td>120.9<\/td>75.1<\/td><\/tr>
Aslan Karatsev*<\/td>Two<\/td>120.1<\/td>74.6<\/td><\/tr>
Norbert Gombos*<\/td>Two<\/td>119.8<\/td>74.4<\/td><\/tr>
Jannik Sinner*<\/td>Two<\/td>119.4<\/td>74.2<\/td><\/tr>
John Millman*<\/td>Two<\/td>118.0<\/td>73.3<\/td><\/tr>
Borna Coric*<\/td>Two<\/td>117.6<\/td>73.1<\/td><\/tr>
Gianluca Mager*<\/td>Two<\/td>117.5<\/td>73.0<\/td><\/tr>
Dominik Koepfer*<\/td>Two<\/td>116.3<\/td>72.2<\/td><\/tr>
Ugo Humbert*<\/td>Two<\/td>116.0<\/td>72.1<\/td><\/tr>
Rafael Nadal**<\/td>Two<\/td>112.3<\/td>69.8<\/td><\/tr>
Dominic Thiem**<\/td>One<\/td>108.5<\/td>67.4<\/td><\/tr>
Novak Djokovic**<\/td>Two<\/td>108.3<\/td>67.3<\/td><\/tr>
Alexander Zverev**<\/td>Two<\/td>107.8<\/td>67.0<\/td><\/tr>
Roger Federer**<\/td>One<\/td>106.4<\/td>66.1<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

*Average Speed data was from the 2021 Australian Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

**Average Speed data as per the ATP Tour<\/a> website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women’s Tennis<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Camila Giorgi<\/a> had the fastest average backhand speed in the below list with an average speed of 72.6mph with her two handed backhand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WTA Player<\/th>One or Two Handed?<\/th>Speed (km\/h)<\/th>Speed (mph)<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Camila Giorgi<\/td>Two<\/td>116.9<\/td>72.6<\/td><\/tr>
Bernarda Pera<\/td>Two<\/td>116.0<\/td>72.1<\/td><\/tr>
Aryna Sabalenka<\/td>Two<\/td>115.9<\/td>72.0<\/td><\/tr>
Elena Rybakina<\/td>Two<\/td>115.4<\/td>71.7<\/td><\/tr>
Ajla Tomljanovic<\/td>Two<\/td>115.0<\/td>71.5<\/td><\/tr>
Coco Gauff<\/td>Two<\/td>114.7<\/td>71.3<\/td><\/tr>
Liudmila Samsonova<\/td>Two<\/td>114.5<\/td>71.1<\/td><\/tr>
Rebecca Marino<\/td>Two<\/td>113.9<\/td>70.8<\/td><\/tr>
Ana Bogdan<\/td>Two<\/td>113.8<\/td>70.7<\/td><\/tr>
Anastasia Potapova<\/td>Two<\/td>113.2<\/td>74.7<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fastest Backhand Speeds in Tennis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Below is a list of the top 10 fastest backhands<\/strong> that were recorded at the 2021 Australian Open in the men’s and women’s events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top 10 Fastest Speeds at the 2021 Australian Open (ATP)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the 2021 Australian Open Men’s Singles tournament, Denis Shapovalov<\/strong> had the fastest recorded backhand at 101.4 mph<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only other tennis player to hit a backhand of at least 100 mph was Nikoloz Basilashvili<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#<\/th>ATP Player<\/th>One or Two Handed?<\/th>Speed (km\/h)<\/th>Speed (mph)<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
1<\/td>Denis Shapovalov<\/td>One<\/td>163.2<\/td>101.4<\/td><\/tr>
2<\/td>Nikoloz Basilashvili<\/td>Two<\/td>161.0<\/td>100.0<\/td><\/tr>
3<\/td>Rafael Nadal<\/td>Two<\/td>156.6<\/td>97.3<\/td><\/tr>
4<\/td>Pierre-Hugues Herbert<\/td>Two<\/td>154.9<\/td>96.3<\/td><\/tr>
5<\/td>Grigor Dimitrov<\/td>One<\/td>154.3<\/td>95.9<\/td><\/tr>
6<\/td>Alexander Zverev<\/td>Two<\/td>153.9<\/td>95.6<\/td><\/tr>
7<\/td>Stan Wawrinka<\/td>One<\/td>153.8<\/td>95.5<\/td><\/tr>
8<\/td>Alexei Popyrin<\/td>Two<\/td>153.5<\/td>95.4<\/td><\/tr>
9<\/td>Fobio Fognini<\/td>Two<\/td>153.0<\/td>95.1<\/td><\/tr>
10<\/td>Dominic Thiem<\/td>One<\/td>150.7<\/td>93.6<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Top 10 Fastest Speeds at the 2021 Australian Open (WTA)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the 2021 Australian Open Women’s Singles tournament, Ana Bogdan<\/strong> had the fastest recorded backhand at 91.6mph<\/strong>, just ahead of Camila Giorgi (91.5mph), and Ajla Tomljanovic (91.2mph).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#<\/th>WTA Player<\/th>One or Two Handed?<\/th>Speed (km\/h)<\/th>Speed (mph)<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
1<\/td>Ana Bogdan<\/td>Two<\/td>147.4<\/td>91.6<\/td><\/tr>
2<\/td>Camila Giorgi<\/td>Two<\/td>147.2<\/td>91.5<\/td><\/tr>
3<\/td>Ajla Tomljanovic<\/td>Two<\/td>146.7<\/td>91.2<\/td><\/tr>
4<\/td>Aryna Sabalenka<\/td>Two<\/td>145.3<\/td>90.3<\/td><\/tr>
5<\/td>Liudmila Samsonova<\/td>Two<\/td>143.1<\/td>88.9<\/td><\/tr>
6<\/td>Bianca Andreescu<\/td>Two<\/td>143.0<\/td>88.8<\/td><\/tr>
7<\/td>Marta Kostyuk<\/td>Two<\/td>142.6<\/td>88.6<\/td><\/tr>
8<\/td>Arantxa Rus<\/td>Two<\/td>142.2<\/td>88.4<\/td><\/tr>
9<\/td>Olga Danilovic<\/td>Two<\/td>142.1<\/td>88.3<\/td><\/tr>
10<\/td>Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova<\/td>Two<\/td>141.7<\/td>88.0<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You may also be interested in my article on forehand speeds in pro tennis<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article looks at how fast professional tennis players on the ATP and WTA Tours hit their backhands on average, and find out who hits the fastest backhand in tennis. The data for the backhands detailed below were mostly sourced from stats released by the tournament organizers at the 2021 Australian Open in relation to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7413,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toomanyrackets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toomanyrackets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toomanyrackets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toomanyrackets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toomanyrackets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/toomanyrackets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29602,"href":"https:\/\/toomanyrackets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7412\/revisions\/29602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toomanyrackets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toomanyrackets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toomanyrackets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toomanyrackets.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}