Stefanos Tsitsipas aims to keep 150-year one-handed backhand streak alive at US Open

Stefanos Tsitsipas faces Ben Shelton in the US Open fourth round with more than a quarter-final spot at stake. The Greek is the only one-handed backhand player left in the draw and must reach the semi-finals to preserve a 150-year streak.

New York: When Stefanos Tsitsipas steps onto Arthur Ashe Stadium in the early hours of Monday (as per IST), the Greek tennis star will be playing not only for a place in the quarterfinals but also for a 150-year-old tennis record.

Tsitsipas, who has been on a resurgence at Majors, will face eighth-seed American Ben Shelton in the round of 16 as the two gear up for what is promised to be a fascinating contest in the Big Apple. =

---

The Greek will not only fight to keep his best run at the US Open going, but also look to keep the record intact for one of the most iconic shots: one-handed backhand. He remains the only man with a one-handed backhand remaining at Flushing Meadows, and he has to make it to the semifinals in New York if he wants to keep the 150-year legacy going.

As per ATP, every year since the inaugural Grand Slam event – Wimbledon 1877 – at least one player of such skill has reached the last four of a men’s major in a year, but the streak is at a delicate juncture now. No one-handed backhand player reached the semifinal of the men’s singles at the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon in 2026, and the US Open remains the final major of the year to keep the streak alive.

And only Tsitsipas can do it. And he is very well aware of that, as he was told about it earlier in the week at the US Open. “I’ve got a 150-year streak to save”, the 28-year-old wrote on X.

The Greek will be making his first-ever appearance in the fourth round at Flushing Meadows, and this is his first pre-quarterfinals game since the French Open 2024, where he was a quarterfinalist.

He was asked about the declining presence of one-handed backhand following his win over Lloyd Harris in round two, along with a question about Diane Parry using a two-hander for return serves before making a switch to one-handed strokes mid-rally.

“I would never be able to pull that off,” Tsitsipas said on Parry’s mid-rally switches. “(The two-hander) is a different shot. You’ve got to use your left hand; it’s much more involved in the shot. To go from returning with a double-handed backhand and then back to a single-handed backhand, I feel like it’s too much work.

“I’ve got to simplify it. I’ve never thought about doing that myself, but I’ll give you that, (the one-hander) is disappearing. I even said that to Grigor [Dimitrov] the other day. You see, every single decade, we are degrading. We are like dinosaurs going extinct,” he said.