A stroke of genius

The picture had been chosen for its utterly gratuitous depiction of female beauty. It showed Justine Henin, the Belgian tennis player who won seven grand-slam singles titles between 2003 and 2007. She was fully dressed for tennis. The gratuitous beauty came from the shot she was playing. It was a single-handed backhand.

Henin was five foot six and so slim she had to run round and round in the shower to get wet. She didn’t look capable of hitting the top off a dandelion. But that backhand regularly devastated opponents, fizzing down the line with astonishing power — where did that come from? — or howling across court at a quite preposterous angle.

But now, as we enter the Australian Open, the first grand-slam tournament of the year, it’s clear that the single-handed backhand is becoming extinct. Practically all the women and a clear majority of the men prefer to put both hands on their rackets and take a great meaty axe-murderer swipe at the ball.