Four days later, the campaign got a deadline. The one-handed backhander has reached the semi-finals of a Grand Slam every year since the first event at Wimbledon in 1877. In 2026, that hasn’t happened yet, and this is the last major of the season.
The other three professions of 2026 have already answered the question. Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Yannick Siner and Alexander Zverev were the participants in the semi-finals in Melbourne. Paris produced Zverev, Flavio Cobolli, Jakub Mensik and Matteo Arnaldi. Wimbledon has produced Sinner, Zverev, Djokovic and Arthur Ferry. Twelve places, twelve two-handed backhands.
The closest shot came at the All England Club, where Grigor Dimitrov advanced to the fourth round to defeat Fer, who himself reached the semi-finals. That leaves New York, and that leaves Tsitsipas.
I have a 150 year streak to save.
Tsitsipas is the last one-handed backhand left in the draw. He published four words about it. “I have a 150-year chain to save.”
Only eight men in the 128-man draw even managed to extend the streak, and seven of them were eliminated on Saturday night. In the first round, four passed. Stan Wawrinka beat Matteo Berretti 7-6, 7-6, 6-0 in his final US Open; Grigor Dimitrov beaten by Alexei Popyrin; Daniel Altmaier defeated American Zachary Swayda 6-3, 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-2; and Giovanni Mpetshi Pericard, who beat Austrian qualifier Yuri Rodionov 7-6 (2), 6-0, 7-6 (4).
Two more went in the second. Lorenzo Musetti, the 13th seed and the only man in the top 20 to take the first step of Australia’s Dane Sweeney, then won five games before losing 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2. Alexander Kovacevich lost to Valentin Vacherot 6-2, 6-3, 7-5. Then Denis Shapovalov went on to beat Ben Shelton in the third at 2:15 a.m. Saturday, 7-6 (3), 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4. Which leaves Tsitsipas, and the man who
He wore this without ever volunteering. Federer stopped in 2022, Thiem in 2024, and the two men who last made it deep into a major lost a shot. That left Tsitsipas, a 2023 Melbourne finalist, and Lorenzo Musetti, a 2024 Wimbledon and 2025 Roland Garros semi-finalist.
Two matches, and the first is the person who eliminated the other
He needs two wins. Ben Shelton in the fourth roundthen Carlos Alcaraz or Tommy Paul in the quarterfinals and the streak lives on for another year. Easy, right?
Shelton has already taken out one with Shapovalov. On Sunday, he can take out the last one.
It is unclear if he knows about any of this. Answering the question about the meeting, the American spoke about tennis and nothing else. “His style of tennis can be very, very effective on all surfaces, all-court game, great athlete. We played once the year of my first tour. Really looking forward to it.”
The list is short and getting shorter
The demographic case is easy to compile and frustrating to read. The top 224 in the men’s rankings have 16 one-handed backhands. Lorenzo Musetti, the 13th seed, was the only one to reach the top 20, and he made it here in the second round for the 123rd-ranked Australian wild card, winning the first set and then five games.
Stan Wawrinka, No. 124, 41, was playing the final US Open of his career and lost in the first round to Matteo Berrettini in three sets, two of them in tiebreakers. Grigor Dimitrov is 137 years old.
Numbers below those fall into the qualifiers and Challenger round, where the shot disappears.
Tsitsipas has spent these two weeks arguing the opposite case with his results. Ranked 53rd, he defeated two top-20 players, Arthur Fils from a set and 5-2 in the first round and Jiri Lehecka in the third, to reach the fourth round for the first time in his career and the second week of a major for the first time in two years.
He’s also just returned to the racquet he grew up with, in part because a back injury prevented him from building his own power. He explained the return in terms of the shot in question.
“I am a player who demands control in my game,” Tsitsipas said. “I know the Blade is the best product that will allow me to gain control, to rotate when I need it. And for a one-handed backhand, I feel it’s one of the best racquets on the market.”
New York has been kind to the shooting in the past. The last one-handed backhander to win a major did so here: Dominic Thiem in 2020, from two sets and a break down against Zverev. Before that, Federer won the Australian Open in 2018. Tsitsipas has two meetings.
