Hiding a Weakness

Tennis Strategy

Hiding a Weakness

In a recent interview, Bjorn Fratangelo (Madison Keys’ husband and coach) talked about how bad most players are at hiding their weakness.

That idea lingered with me for a few days. Then I asked myself, who is exceptional at hiding their weakness? And how do they do it?

One player came to mind: ATP World No. 5 Casper Ruud. So today you’ll learn Ruud’s weakness, three things he does insanely well to hide it, and how those combine to make him a world-class player.

Weakness: The Backhand

The Norwegian’s double-hander is like a gym bro that skips leg day: it’s all arms. He doesn’t engage his hips, core and shoulders in the same way that GOAT-backhanders like Djokovic, Murray, and Sinner do. As a result, he has far less control and power off of this wing, which often allows his opponents to attack.

But despite this, Ruud is a winning machine. He’s been a consistent Top 10 player for years, has made 3 slam finals, and continues to rack up titles. So what does he do to hide his weakness so well? Let’s jump in.

He Works Really F-ing Hard to Hit Forehands

If you’re also someone with a weaker backhand, you know this one all too well. Ruud works incredibly hard to run around his backhand and hit forehands. He has Nadal-level footwork (he has to), and he’s got every type of forehand in his bag:

• Inside out short angle

• Inside out deep (flat and heavy top spin)

• Inside in (flat and heavy top spin)

Point in and point out, the 26 year old runs around his backhand to hit forehands. It’s hard work physically, but it’s how he puts bread on the table.

He Serves Farther Over on the Ad Side

While running around the backhand is exhausting, Ruud saves energy by serving 3-4 feet away from the center hash mark on the Ad side. This gives him a head start when he inevitably tries to find a forehand.

Related stat: The tour is filled with return-bots that can laser returns into the backhand corner. But Ruud’s serve position helps him minimize that damage. He held 83% of the time in 2024, which made him top 30 in that category. Amazing for someone without a huge serve and a weak backhand.

He Takes a Hand off the Racket

Lastly, the World No. 5 uses the slice backhand often, which helps him in two ways:

1. Since slices stay low, they’re hard to attack

2. Since slices are slow, they give him time to recover back to the middle and not give up court position

While his slice doesn’t exactly bother the world’s best players, it does just enough to help him stay in points and eventually find his forehand. Without it, he might be 50 in the world, not 5.

The Needle in the Haystack

When you add these 3 things together, what you end up with is a weakness that’s almost impossible to find. Through hustle, smart positioning and a solid slice, Ruud forces opponents into high-risk shots if they want to attack his backhand. That makes the World No. 5 a masterclass in adaptation—minimizing a liability, maximizing his strengths, and thriving at the top of the sport.

Trivia

Who is the only player to have won a Golden Slam (all four Grand Slams and Olympic gold) in a single year?

A. Novak Djokovic

B. Steffi Graf

C. Rafael Nadal

D. Serena Williams

Find out at the bottom!

Quick note on last week’s trivia question: Juan Carlos Ferrero was NOT World No. 1 just before Federer took over the top spot in 2004. It was Andy Roddick. Shoutout to reader Lou DePeters from Atlanta for making me look bad fact checking!

Meet the Player

Denis Shapovalov

From: Canada 🇨🇦

Best Slam Result: SF (Wimbledon 2021)

Career High Ranking: 10

Fun Fact: Enjoys rapping, having released a pair of songs in 2020 entitled “Night Train” and “Drip”

Game Analysis: E-X-P-L-O-S-I-V-E. It’s a bad day to be a tennis ball when Shapo is playing. The Canadian takes power to another level, demolishing groundstrokes that barely give his opponents time to blink. However, he’s known to litter up the stat sheet with his high risk game, and take some head-scratching losses at times.

Career Prediction: While Shapo is electric to watch when he’s on, his lack of consistency gives me a more pessimistic outlook for him at slams. He’ll remain a top 50 player and catch a hot streak a couple of times of year (like this past week in Dallas). But you won’t see him in another slam semi.

In Case You Missed It

Headlines from Around the Tours

💃🏿 She wasn’t doing the salsa, grandpa. It’s called a crip walk. 23 time Grand Slam champ Serena Williams made a surprise appearance during Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday. Williams was dancing to “Not Like Us,” the mega popular diss track that Kendrick fired at Drake last year. Serena and Drake had a well-documented connection dating back to 2015, when he sat in her box at Wimbledon and followed her to the Cincinnati Open. While Serena moved on, marrying Alexis Ohanian in 2017, Drake took longer, even dissing Ohanian in a 2022 song. Serena’s Super Bowl cameo was both a nod to her Compton roots—and a middle finger to Drake.

😕 Halep hangs them up. Former World No. 1 and 2-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep announced her retirement from the sport this past week. While the Romanian deserves to be remembered as a phenomenal player, her legacy is somewhat tainted by her doping bans, which took her out of the game for almost a whole year. Simona’s ban was so public and so long that it’s unfortunately the first thing I think of when her name is brought up — not her unbelievable final against Serena at Wimbledon 2019.

🏆 She’s so back. Just 4 months after returning from maternity leave, former World No. 4 and 2021 Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic claimed a big title this past weekend. The new mom won Abu Dhabi (WTA 500), which she also won in 2023. Bencic’s return is bad news bears for the rest of the tour — keep an eye on her this year.

Memes

How I’d imagine a Kyrgios (left) vs. Sinner match would end up these days.

Answer

B. Steffi Graf

Graf did this in 1988, winning all four grand slams and Olympic gold in Seoul.

I’m trying to imagine what Steffi said to herself on Jan 1, 1989.

“Okay, this is going to be my year. Again.”