There are a variety of popular tennis grips for forehand and backhand shots. An outside forehand grip, generally referred as the eastern grip, is the easiest for beginning players to use while learning the forehand. A pure inside forehand grip, called the reverse eastern or Hawaiian grip, is awkward and seldom used at high levels of competition. Other popular forehand grips fall somewhere between the eastern and reverse eastern grips. Backhand grips vary similarly.
Racket Handles
There are eight sides and bevels to the handle of popular tennis rackets. Going clockwise, they are top side, upper right bevel, right side, lower right bevel, bottom side, lower left bevel, left side and upper left bevel. Various tennis grips place the base knuckle of the index finger on one of these sides or bevels.
Eastern Forehand Grip
The eastern grip places the base knuckle of the index finger on the right side, or the left side for left-handers. Players can use this grip to flatten out the shot for more power and penetration. Players can switch easily from the eastern to other grips, making it easier to attack the net, but maintaining consistency is more difficult with the flatter stroke. It is more difficult to apply topspin, too, so this is not a good grip to use for outlasting opponents.Tennis stars Lindsay Davenport and Tim Henman use this grip.
Continental Grip
For this grip, the base knuckle of the index finger goes on the upper right bevel, or upper left bevel for left-handers. It is the natural grip to use for serves and overhead shots. It also is good for slice shots, volleys and defensive shots. It is not the grip to use to apply topspin.
Semi-Western Forehand Grip
In this grip, the base knuckle grips the lower right bevel, or the lower left bevel for left-handers. It is a good grip for applying topspin, hitting accurate lobs, controlling short-angle shots and handling high balls. This grip closes the racket face, which makes returning low shots difficult. Tennis pros who use this grip include Marat Safin and Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Western Forehand Grip
For this grip, the base knuckle slides down to the bottom side. This is a good grip for clay court specialists, since it can deliver heavy topspin, but hitting powerful shots is difficult and returning low shots on faster surfaces is extremely difficult. Rafael Nadal and Amelie Mauresmo are two prominent pros using this grip.
Extreme Western, Reverse Eastern or Hawaiian Grip
In this grip, the base knuckle of the index finger grips the left side of the racket, or the right side for left-handers. Clay court specialist tennis star Alberto Berasategui used this unusual grip, also referred to as a "frying pan grip," to gain international prominence in the 1990s. It allowed him to hit forehands and backhands with the same side of the racket, but his career was cut short by a wrist injury.
Eastern Backhand Grip
The base knuckle of the index finger rests on the top side for this grip, which is a good grip for hitting kick serves and handling low balls, but not as good for high topspin shots.
Extreme Eastern Backhand Grip
For this grip, players slide the base knuckle of their index finger over to the upper left bevel, or the upper right bevel for left-handed shots. This closes the racket, making it good for clay court specialists but not for returning low shots on faster surfaces.
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