Tennis is a sport of beauty, as you can win in many ways and use many different tools to do so. The most dominant tool arguably is the serve these days, but the true king of tennis shots is the forehand, which can be the decisive factor in both serve and return games.
How to evaluate the quality of shots is a constant question, as there are subjective and objective methods that are usually mixed. Nevertheless, we want to try and look at the best forehands of 2024 from both perspectives and bring you our curated summary.
The objective approach – forehands by the numbers
As a tennisnerd, you are most likely drawn towards facts and figures. It is the only possible objective approach to deciding on a definite winner in terms of quality. Especially the ATP has delivered a lot of quality stats via their outlets recently, which consider the forehand’s depth, speed and positioning to get a grade between 1 (poor) and 10 (perfect). Of course, as in any grading, it is virtually impossible to reach the perfect 10, but you rather want your average to get as close to the high 9s as possible. On the other hand, the WTA has not published any official stats yet, but rather still limits their stats to the classic winner versus unforced errors.
So how do you try to grade the forehand in the ATP system? Working with their partner Infosys, they have created a system that takes several factors into account. Artificial intelligence is used to recognize speed, spin, depth and width of the shot and grade this shot depending on the effectiveness. A perfect grade 10 forehand should win the point in 100% of all cases, while a grade 9 does not linearly mean a 90% win percentage. These grades are then used to create an average over the course of a tournament or season and rank players according to these. The tour average in 2024 so far is 7.60 for the forehand, with higher numbers at higher ranked events of course.
The WTA does not provide those quality numbers yet, so we do not have an average yet. But it is worth noting that the WTA forehand differs greatly from the men’s shots. Usually, they are much flatter and with less spin, therefor being either a lot of hit-or-miss or just easier to defend.
However, next to the classic figures of winners and errors, the forehand speeds are measured at times and can provide an insight to the shot. Without surprise, Iga Swiatek leads both the speed and spin categories for WTA forehands, sometimes even surpassing parts of the ATP players. The other players in the top 4 of heavy forehands for the women: Qinwen Zheng, Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka.
Best WTA forehand – Iga by a mile
So, for the women, we can take those basic numbers and combine them with subjective insights, both by us fans and the players. And all those point into the same direction, Iga Swiatek has the best forehand on tour by a wide margin. This is mainly due to her spin, which is on par with lots of men on tour, surpassing 3200 rpm. Adding to that, she also hits on of the fastest forehands at more than 75 miles per hour, which in combination is a lethal weapon, especially if your opponents are not used to this kind of spin. The shot often accelerates into the other players after hitting the ground, which differs greatly from the rest of the field for the women.
Other players coming to mind immediately when you think about dominant forehands are Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina, who both prefer the classic flat WTA approach. Their speeds are on par with Swiatek, whereas their spin is at least 1000 rpm lower, and this has a couple of effects. For one, the percentage of shots is significantly lower as the spin helps to stay inbounds. Additionally, if they hit the ball, it cannot change speed as much as the heavy topspin and won’t be as hard to redirect. So, in total, the Polish World No. 1 takes the clear WTA victory for best forehand of 2024 and potentially one of the best all time.
Best ATP forehand – numbers or feeling?
The ATP can rely on its smart stats and those clearly have some favorites in mind – Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. Those do not come at surprise, as they dominate most of the matches with a variety of strokes, but in different manners. While Novak usually grinds down his opponents, Jannik might have the best ball striking and Carlos has the variety of spin, speed and touch shots. In total, the Infosys stats see Novak in the lead, which can be kind of surprising. He does not often show the one glamorous shot, but rather opts to play quality shots and get into the final position to win the point.
Subjectively, I would say that the Alcaraz forehand most likely would get the most votes amongst viewers, as he regularly pulls a miracle shot. On the other hand, he sometimes risks way too much or just puts in an average shot with high spin to start with.
Jannik Sinner would be another contender and actually ranks second on the Infosys stats before Alcaraz. He has an incredible speed in all his groundstrokes, especially the forehand and while he might not be as flashy as the Spaniard, he averages a higher quality in total.
Honorable mentions go to Alexander Zverev, who is known for his backhand mainly, and Casper Ruud, who sometimes seems unplayable on a good day on his forehand wing.
Who would you have put on top for the top forehands of 2024? Let us know below!
