Nice to see a slam winner with single handed backhand

Other than Federer, we have to go back to Gaudio (remember him?) at 2004 Roland Garros for the last slam winner with single handed backhand. And other than Federer, I can only think of 1 player with single-handed backhand - Fernando Gonzalez, to reach slam final over past few years.

I'm going to resist the temptation to read too much into Wawrinka's victory and claim that the tide is turning back again in favour of players with single-handed backhands, but it does make a refreshing change. Not sure who else out of the up and coming players other than Dimitrov plays with single-handed backhand (normally you get a few Italians and Spaniards from time to time), but here's hoping we can get a few more players at the top with single-handed backhand, to keep a bit of variety. I've nothing against the double-handed backhand per se but it can get a bit monotonous watching all the players with identical strokes.

It also shows that a guy with a truly world class one hander can handle Nadal's spin, something that was assumed to be improbable with how much problems that shot has given Federer in the past.

Kuerten used to have no problems with high rpm Bruguera either. It comes down to clay based BH technique, which Stan has...but he's also got the talent to take the ball ridiculously early.

I posted about this yesterday, agree that hopefully it spurs others on to adopt the shot as juniors move into their teens from DHBH underpinnings.

Nice to see a mention for Kuerten, one of my all time favourite players. I think its a shame that Kuerten was in a different era to Nadal - would have been fascinating to watch them go toe-to-toe at Roland Garros. I really think Kuerten could have pushed Nadal - he thrived on a high ball to the backhand and also had the mental strength lacking in a lot of today's claycourters (e.g. Almagro has great shotmaking ability but lacks the tactical nous and mental strength to thrive at claycourt Masters and Roland Garros).

By the way, this isn't a dig at Nadal's amazing claycourt achievements - just lamenting the fact that many of today's 'claycourters' have a flaky temperament!