Word: topspin
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...that Jimmy Connors, Chris Evert and Tracy Austin have made it respectable. But when Borg first came to public notice, no one had used the shot since Australian Vivian McGrath in the 1930s. Needless to say, Borg's method was considered idiosyncratic, a stylistic dead end. For that matter, topspin was viewed as the last refuge of Bobby Riggs trying to win a bet. The patient base-line game has rarely been seen since Jean-RenéLacoste was outfoxing stronger foes in the 1920s. All the elements were there, but the mix awaited a slight Swedish boy and a train...
...adult?with two hands for both his forehand shot and his backhand, the same way he wielded a hockey stick. Since the only way he knew to swing a racquet was the wristy stroke of the table-tennis player, he flicked tennis balls the same way. The Borg topspin thus was born. By all that is classic in the sport, everything about Borg's strokes was wrong. But his mother remembers one thing that was right: "Even then he loved to play. Even then he hated to lose. Even in his pretend games, he always wanted...
...junior tour naments, there was no mistaking his tal ent, but his unorthodox strokes were a bewilderment. As he grew stronger, he gave up using both hands on his forehand, but the two-handed backhand had be come a fixture of his game, as had the fondness for topspin...
...court. With classic, flat tennis strokes?the kind hit by such stars as Connors and McEnroe?the margin for error is reduced to an area some 6 in. over the net: hit the ball lower, it will catch the tape, higher and it will sail out of play. With topspin, however, the ball can fly several feet above the net and still drop down into play. After it clears the net, a topspin ball falls shorter and bounces higher than a conventional shot...
There is nothing new about topspin...