The Greatest One-Handed Backhands of the Open Era, Nos. 15-11: Haas' versatility, Barty's slice—and don't forget about Almagro

Our five-part series on The Greatest One-Handed Backhands of the Open Era continues today. Here's the list so far:

• No. 20: Gabriela Sabatini
• No. 19: Dominic Thiem
• No. 18: Amelie Mauresmo
• No. 17: Guillermo Vilas
• No. 16: Gaston Gaudio

Today, we'll reveal backhands 15 through 11; stay tuned for the next installment on Friday.

No. 15: Evonne Goolagong

Slapping a ball against a water tank with a wooden paddle made out of a fruit-box plank: That’s how everyone gets their start in this game, right?

From the beginning, Goolagong didn’t fit the tennis mold, in her native Australia or anywhere else. By the time she swung her first real racquet, at age 9, in 1960, her nation already had a long and healthy tennis tradition. Among whites, that is. Goolagong was the first indigenous Australian to reach the sport’s top tier.

Game-wise, she was just as unique. She played in a relaxed style and flowed easily across the baseline and—especially—up to the net, where she put her soft hands to good use. At the core of her game was her one-handed backhand. Whether she was slicing it, driving it, or dropping it, Goolagong moved effortlessly through that stroke as well. It led her to seven Grand Slam singles titles, six of them on grass.

Others have generated more pace and RPMs with their one-handers. But few have been able to control a match with this shot the way Goolagong could when her timing was right. That was never more true than in her last great victory, over her rival Chris Evert, in the 1980 Wimbledon final. Goolagong hit with uncanny purpose, precision, and creativity that day, bringing Evert forward with her backhand drop (see , and then lofting the ball over her head with a tantalizingly perfect backhand lob.

Goolagong didn’t hit with the vicious topspin that we would soon see from the backhand side. But she did give us a glimpse of a future where the one-hander would be transformed from a humble transition stroke into the most artistic kill shot in the game.

No. 14: Tommy Haas

Nick Bollettieri liked to say that Haas’ backhand was second to none. Which isn’t surprising, considering that Haas began training at Bollettieri’s academy at age 11 and never really left. What is surprising, though, is that the German’s backhand wasn’t the classic two-hander that has been the norm in Bradenton ever since Andre Agassi and Monica Seles first stalked those courts.

Before he came to Nick’s, Haas spent seven years learning the game from his father, Peter, who was a teaching pro in Tommy’s native Hamburg. Tennis fans should be thankful that no one in Bradenton was able to force Haas to put another hand on his backhand, because his one-hander was among the most stylishly versatile shots of the last two decades, an ideal blend of the aesthetic and the effective.

Haas knew that hitting this shot meant taking the harder road to success.

“Most of the one-handed backhands now have to be kind of good,” Haas said in 2016, “because otherwise you’re gonna be struggling.”

His was kind of good. He could drive it, slice it, drop it, chip-and-charge with it. And it took him far: To No. 2 in the world, and into the quarterfinals or better at all four majors. There were more useful one-handers during his time—Federer’s, Wawrinka’s—and flashier ones—Gasquet’s, Almagro’s. But Haas’ felt classic. His blend of flair and functionality from that side helped make him a mainstay in the Top 30, and popular with fans of all ages.

WATCH ABOVE: Tommy Haas, tournament director of the BNP Paribas Open, discusses this year's tournament from Indian Wells

No. 13: Billie Jean King

“I’m proud of having been an attacking player,” King said as her career was winding down in the early 1980s. “Especially because I believe that that breed is always out there taking more of a risk.”

King was contrasting herself with the “baseline machines” who were in the ascendant at that time—Tracy Austin, Andrea Jaeger, and their athletic godmother, Chris Evert. Unlike the machines, King liked to come to the net. Maybe more important, though, while they had new-school two-handed backhands, she still had the one-hander she’d learned in the 1950s.

Yet King’s backhand was hardly out-dated or rudimentary during her time. She had a smooth slice that she finished with a graceful upturn, but she could also square up and drive a flat ball into the corner, or chisel under the ball for a drop shot. It was also the shot that got her from baseline to net without having to adjust her grip. Most famously, she used a steady backhand chip to grind Bobby Riggs down in the Battle of the Sexes.

King needed her backhand to be as good as it was. As she once said, she learned the wrong technique on her forehand when she started and was never able to fully correct it. At 5’4” she was also undersized for a net player. Her backhand helped her make up for those deficiencies, and, coupled with her risk-taking nature, helped make her one of the great grass-court players of any era.

No. 12: Ash Barty

Barty is the only player on this list, and one of the few players in tennis history, to own two distinct backhands, one of them a two-handed drive and the other a one-handed slice. As a top junior, she relied on her strong two-hander most of the time. But as her pro career progressed, and she saw the disruptive damage that her slice did to her opponents, that became her backhand of choice. The more she sliced the ball, it seemed, the higher she rose in the rankings, and the more difficult she was to play. That versatility was her both special gift, and part of her Aussie tennis heritage.

“My first coach was very old-fashioned, and I wanted to learn all the shots,” Barty told journalist Matthias Stache. “I wanted to be able to hit all areas of the court and feel like I had the complete game.”

By the time she retired in 2022, Barty’s slice may have been the most distinctive element of that complete game. She put a hard, biting backspin on the ball, which kept it low and moving quickly through the court. It was that rare luxury: an offensive shot that involved little risk. Barty’s opponent’s didn’t see slices that vicious very often, and didn’t have many, or any, ways to counter it.

“On her backhand side, I mean, everything is coming in at your shoelaces on the baseline,” Madison Keys said with a smile after losing to Barty in the 2022 Australian Open semifinals. “So it’s not like you can really do anything with that.”

During that tournament, Jim Courier said Barty’s slice technique was the best in the world, and the equal of Roger Federer’s.

Barty, naturally, demurred. “Mine’s a long way off that,” she said. But she knew what the shot meant to her success.

“I love to use my slice, I love to get creative with it, to use it offensively and defensively,” she said.

There’s a lot to miss about Barty’s game. For lovers of of variety, of spin, of classic technique and thoughtful tactics, her one-hander will be the hardest element to replace.

No. 11: Nicolas Almagro

There are backhands on this list, like Barty’s just above, that played a key role in taking a player to No. 1 in the world. This wasn’t quite the case with Almagro’s one-hander. The native of Murcia, Spain, never made it past the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam, and he peaked at No. 9 in 2011. He was a combined 2-30 against his countrymen Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer, and their rock-solid two-handers. Maybe Almagro would have been better off with a two-hander himself.

Thankfully he never switched, because Almagro’s backhand was a thing of wickedly ornate beauty, and the 21st-century sport would have been poorer without its artistry.

He brought the racquet back high and early, he used a full shoulder turn, he accelerated massively through the swing, and he finished with a kind reverse flourish over his head. The drive from behind the baseline, the pass on the dead run, the low crosscourt angle, the reflex return: Almagro could hit them all past his opponent, without any need for a second hand.

On YouTube there's a seven-minute clip entitled, “Nicolas Almagro—70 Perfect Backhand Winners.” (Watch it above.) It’s all the legacy he needs.

Coming Thursday: Backhands No. 10-7