G’day from Paris,
Forehand and backhand performance is always a key ingredient in reaching week two at Roland Garros.
One way I like to evaluate groundstrokes is to subtract errors (forced & unforced combined) from winners. It’s almost always going to give you a “negative” result. For example, Carlos Alcaraz has hit 78 forehand winners while committing 166 forehand errors to the quarter-finals. 78 minus 177 = -88.
Here’s the breakdown of forehand performance for the eight quarter-finalists.
2025 Roland Garros Forehand Performance (Men’s Qtr Finalists)
It’s Jannik Sinner then daylight.
Sinner has hit 65 forehand winners and only committed 69 forehand errors to be -4.
In all honesty, that’s a joke.
Look at the last column (yellow) and compare what’s far more normal when it comes to forehands and backhands. Tiafoe, Musetti, and Zverev are all middle of this pack, and are spread out from -49 to -59 to -66. That’s normal. Minus four is not normal.
Sinner’s forehand is as tidy as any forehand on the planet. I don’t ever remember seeing these impressive numbers in the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam. Interesting that Tommy Paul is the only player who ended up over minus 100. Keep in mind, he has played two five-setters to the quarters.
Now, let’s look at backhand performance.
2025 Roland Garros Backhand Performance (Men’s Qtr Finalists)
Alexander Zverev leads the pack of quarter-finalists with backhand performance at -50. That’s a normal number for backhands and forehands that are firing on all cylinders. Just goes to show you that Sinner’s forehand numbers are completely berserk.
It’s interesting to note that the highest amount of backhand winners comes from Alexander Bublik, who had a gutsy win against Jack Draper in the round of 16.
The highest amount of backhand errors is Tommy Paul, with 130. Remember, Paul has played two five-setters to the quarters.
SUMMARY
Tennis is roughly 70% errors. In the first four shots that start the point, the error rate is north of 80%.
Also, around 70% of winners struck from the back of the court are from the forehand wing. We play a forehand-dominated sport, but the forehand bleeds errors more than the backhand.
Which brings us back to Sinner. His forehand has 65 winners to the quarters. Very solid. His forehead has also yielded 69 errors. That’s absurd. His ability to limit forehand errors while still maintaining forehand winners is extremely impressive.
Sinner’s forehand is clean, balanced, and extraordinary. The backswing is lower than normal, but he gets behind the ball and fires it like it is coming out of a cannon far more than normal.
Greatly looking forward to seeing who progresses to the semis and whose forehand or backhand stands tallest in the heat of battle.