Topspin

A year later, I returned to the tennis center, and Frances, now 12, had replaced the moon ball with fearsome topspin groundstrokes that shot off the court and smacked into the back fence with a thud.

India’s serves dropped in quality and pace as they resorted to floaters and topspin serves, while their jump serves were off the mark.

Other winners in MTE Classified team category were Team Barda (A&B), Team Topspin Titans (C) and Team TMK VVMAX 1 (B&C), while Chat Conta won the 35s and 45s Legends men’s singles titles.

She uses a lot of topspin.

But what about those among us who like a hit and giggle at the local club, or a topspin slog with an arch rival on a suburban court?

Collins says early indications from Nadal's first match, a straight-sets win, were that the balls' speed off his topspin forehand, a favored shot, was faster than last year.

Her serve is already lethal, while her hooked topspin forehand and her backhand tore through the Wimbledon grass.

Like so many times before, it was Nadal’s topspin-heavy lefty forehand, his relentless ball-chasing and his return game that gave Federer fits.

Nadal's topspin makes it hard for his opponents to hit the ball as it often rebounds at shoulder height - a tough task for a player who stands at just 1.78 metres tall.

Ruud has modeled his game on Nadal’s, not Federer’s, from the heavy topspin forehand to a penchant for standing deep behind the baseline to return serve.

Unlike the classically trained English, who lifted the bat directly behind them in the backswing, the boy from the Australian bush looped it away from his body, like a topspin forehand.

Like Phelps, his physique and technique are perfectly adapted to this environment: No one moves on terre battue like Nadal, and no one’s topspin forehand kicks like Nadal’s, not even Thiem’s, which is quite a versatile weapon on its own.

Thiem, mixing heavy topspin and flat groundstrokes and angling balls across the sidelines, saved a break point at 1-2 and two more at 2-3 and there were signs that Nadal was struggling with his timing - over-cooking several forehands.

Another difference is that unlike backspin and topspin, sidespin will have relatively very little effect on the bounce of the ball, much in the same way that a spinning top would not travel left or right if its axis of rotation were exactly vertical.

Aside from the initial direction change when bouncing, provided that it does not exceed the reach of the opponent, a cork-spun ball is easily countered with topspin or backspin.

Because the ball speed is the main aim of this shot, often the spin on the ball is something other than topspin.

Blocks almost always produce the same spin as was received, many times topspin.

His muscularity allowed him to put heavy topspin on both his forehand and two-handed backhand.

In table tennis topspin is regarded as an offensive technique due to increased ball speed, lower bio-mechanical efficiency and the pressure that it puts on the opponent by reducing reaction time.

On the bounce, the topspin will accelerate the ball, much in the same way that a wheel which is already spinning would accelerate upon making contact with the ground.