Great Forehands
In his 1979 autobiography Jack Kramer, who had a great forehand himself, devotes a page to the best tennis strokes he had ever seen. He wrote: "FOREHAND—Segura was best, then Perry, followed by Tilden and Vines (although I never saw Big Bill's till he was in his forties). Of the moderns, Năstase's forehand is a superb one, especially on the run.".
At a professional event in 1951, the forehand drives of a number of players were electronically measured. Pancho Gonzales hit the fastest, at 112.88 mph, followed by Jack Kramer at 107.8 and Welby Van Horn at 104.
In the 1980s, Ivan Lendl was famous for the smoothness of his forehand and his ability to strike the ball hard, no matter where he was standing on the court.
At the 2011 US OPEN James Blake recorded the fastest ever forehand at 125 mph(199 kmh).
The forehand has been used as a major weapon by many players for years.
Amongst the male players, some of the notable players with great forehands are:
- Bill Johnston, 1920s amateur
- Bill Tilden, 1920s and 1930s amateur and professional
- Ellsworth Vines, 1930s amateur and professional
- Jack Crawford, 1930s amateur
- Fred Perry, 1930s amateur and professional
- Jack Kramer, 1940s amateur and professional
- Pancho Segura, 1940s and '50s professional, first 2-handed forehand
- Björn Borg
- Ivan Lendl
- Jim Courier
- Boris Becker
- Pete Sampras
- Andre Agassi
- Rafael Nadal
- Roger Federer
- Novak Djokovic
- Robin Söderling
- James Blake
- Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
- Tomas Berdych
- Gael Monfils
- Fernando Gonzalez
- Fernando Verdasco
- Nikolay Davydenko
- Andy Roddick
- Tommy Haas
- Nicolas Almagro
- Juan Carlos Ferrero
- Marin Cilic
- Juan Martín del Potro
- David Ferrer
- Marcos Baghdatis
- Lukas Rosol
- Milos Raonic
- Jeremy Chardy
- Reda El Amrani
- Anas Fattar
And amongst the female players:
- May Sutton Bundy, 1900s amateur
- Molla Mallory, 1910s and 1920s amateur
- Helen Wills Moody, 1920s and 30s amateur
- Dorothy Round, 1930s amateur
- Jadwiga Jędrzejowska, 1930s amateur
- Christine Truman, 1950s and 60s amateur
- Sue Barker, 1970s professional
- Marita Redondo, by vote of women playing pros in 1975 named the best Forehand in women's tennis. (footnote 6)
- Martina Navratilova
- Steffi Graf, one of whose nicknames was "Fräulein Forehand"
- Serena Williams
- Monica Seles (two-handed)
- Maria Sharapova
- Justine Henin
- Kim Clijsters
- Venus Williams
- Petra Kvitova
- Tatiana Golovin
- Ana Ivanović
- Samantha Stosur
- Li Na
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