Snickers' BH is a very solid shot in attacking and defensive positions, but I get this feeling that Vika "over"-crosscourts her BH at times when she should be going DTL which oftenly gets her into trouble against the big hitters like Kvitova as they will blast DTL on their turn.
Id add in Kvitovas backhand DTL too. Some of the shots she pulled off in the final from big returns on that side from Maria were amazing, some on her knees.
Venus' backhand back in the day. It is one of the reasons she owned players like Kim and Jennifer. Get into CC rallies and bam with a huge backhand DTL. But Vee is a former top 10 player ATM.
Marion on the run... actually :lol: It makes her go for angles, and she pulls it off alot.
I'd say Jankovic BH (oh wait she's not top 10 anymore)... Then Zvonareva
Kimothy's BH is a CC maniac, she rarely goes DTL with it. Her FH is so extreme that her redirection of the ball is either unbelievably precise or flops terribly (also depends on the ball she's fed though).
But I do agree with JCTennisfan about Kimothy's BH being very able to angle the opponent off the court CC immediately after soaking up pressure. A couple of examples I remember of that are in her match against Azarenka Toronto '09.
When you say redirect, I usually think of cc shots. Going back behind your opponent, wrong footing them. And honestly, im suprised no one has mentioned Kim. Her strokes, especially her BH, can be devestating cc. Gotta deduct a lil bit for the fact that she uses CC ALOT, making it a lil less deceptive. But ive many a time seen someone try to hit a cc shot to her backhand only for it to come back at an even more extreme angle.
Oh, Capriati and vintage (2000-2002) Dokic were amazing to watch change the direction of the ball. Ivanovic's forehand when she was confident used to operate on the same kind of direction changing ability.
Really? Although her forehand was awesome when she had time to set up, I have to say I never really thought of it as a great shot at absorbing pace and redirecting it... indeed she often made errors when she tried, even at her peak.
Kvitova's standing, running and kneeling backhand re-direct down the line. And Kvitova's standing and running re-direct forehand down the line. Kvitova's Cross court hook forehand into the corner's. Kvitova's Cross Court sharp angled Back onto the upper side lines.
I've seen her re-direct all these shots regularly with stunning and ruthless efficiency for winners!
Evert yes, Hingis no. Hingis did indeed have a nice backhand, but it just didnt compare to Janko's. Jankovic hit hers harder, had better disguise, could go inside out, and it generally looked more effortless/had better depth on a consistent basis. Neither backhand was bad, mind you, but Janko's was superior.
Dude, GET OFF THE CRACK. Jankovic looks like she's trying to lasso cattle when she hits her backhand. And pace? Over 2006/7 Hingis, yep she hit it harder. But even 2001 Hingis hit harder, deeper and more effortless backhands than Jankovic ever has. Hitting an inside out backhand is hardly something that makes it better; it means her forehand was horrible, and she compensated by looping an inside-out backhand back into the court.
Besides the obvious (i.e. looking at them when you're not on drugs), just look at the stats. Hingis' backhand helped her win 5 Singles Slams. Jankovic's helped her get to #1 at the end of 2008, and thats it. It was not a big enough weapon or a good enough stroke to make her a Slam winner.
Hingis basically created the BHDTL in the modern game, in terms of her precision, willingness to open the court/hit clean winners off it. Evert had an immaculate bh, with a seemingly impenetrable success rate, but she never really went for audacious clean winners off the bh, especially dtl. Evert was all about manipulating the ball, stretching her opponents in rallies, before finally closing out the point. Hingis took the ball ridiculously early and had such great disguise.
Then of course Venus/Serena revolutionised the concept of redirecting the ball. Kvitova has great hands and her timing lends itself well to change the direction of the ball, but she has nowhere near the athleticism that Venus and Serena had, combined with their fundamental racquet skill.
I agree with the first half of your post, but V&S didnt revolutionize redirection. The William sisters simply combined power and footspeed in a way that noone had done before. Before the WS you had slow, but very powerful hitters in the form of Davenport, Seles, Pierce. And then you had fast movers with good backhands that lacked power (coezter, hingis, asv, etc) But only until the WS came around did you have 2 players who had both power and footspeed. THATS what they revolutionized.
And people are comparing her to Jankovic of all people. It just boggles my mind dude. Hingis runs circles around her in the talent department, not to mention outclassing her with the backhand.