Fed Forehand Breakdown

Here's a good analysis of Da Rodge's recent forehand woes, from Steve Tignor, who I'm increasingly growing to admire as a tennis hack who actually seems to be able to grapple with tactics and technique at the same time.

One thing I'm noticing though in all this fretting over Fed is the appalling lack of historical depth when it comes to assessing his problems. Tignor musters Graff and Sampras, bien sûr, but given the generally complete and neo-classical (although updated for the modern game) nature of his strokes, it would make sense to ponder some pre-1990s antecedents. Maybe Bill Johnson or Ellsworth Vines? Because if you think about it, Fed's forehand is kind of a lonely stroke, in the sense that he doesn't use a full Western grip, while just about everyone else does.

Here's Wikipedia summary of the history of the shot, for purposes of making a judgment.

OH, and BTW, Guilles Simon, FYI, is a "pusher"--a player in the Brad Gilbert "Winning Ugly" mold. Shotmakers like Fed always have trouble with those guys because they get frustrated and over-force the issue, as Fed was in his Toronto loss on his forehand side.