Perfect Your Tennis Forehand Technique With Tips From Serena Williams

Serena Williams is a professional tennis player who has 21 Grand Slam Singles Titles, 13 Grand Slam Women’s Doubles Titles, and 4 Olympic Gold Medals. Serena has a max serve speed of 128.6 mph (3rd fastest recorded women’s serve).

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What Is a Forehand in Tennis?

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What Is a Forehand in Tennis?

The tennis forehand is a type of groundstroke where the racket’s swing path goes across the player’s body with an open palm. The dominant hand maintains the forehand grip.

  • For right-handed players, the racket’s swing path starts at the right side of the body, where the racket face makes a contact point with the ball. It goes across the torso and ends with a follow through over the left shoulder.
  • For a left-handed forehand, reverse the racket’s swing path to go from the left side to the right shoulder.
The Four Different Styles of Forehands

There are four main types of tennis forehands.

  1. Western
  2. Semi-Western
  3. Eastern
  4. Continental

The Western grip used to be popular in the early twentieth century, as did the Continental grip. The semi-Western is one of the more popular contemporary grips. Many tennis greats like Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic prefer to hold the racket in the semi-Western way. The Eastern grip is the most modern tennis forehand grip. Professional players like Serena Williams and Roger Federer are known for the Eastern grip.