“They have huge potential”: Musetti stands up for the one-handed backhand

Lorenzo Musetti stands up for the one-handed backhand, and for the young players who still hit it. The Italian spoke in his press conference at the Rolex Paris Masters on Monday, after beating Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz 7-6 (3), 7-6 (10) to set up a second-round meeting with World No. 1 Alexander Zverev.

Asked about the young players coming through with a one-handed backhand, he backed them without hesitation. “They are young, I think they can improve a lot and they have huge potential,” he said.

The name of a young Frenchman, 20-year-old Felix Balshaw, came up explicitly in the conversation. On the women’s side, Austria’s Lilli Tagger is watched as a figurehead of the shot.

The one-handed backhand, missing from the Grand Slam semi-finals in 2026

The shot is under pressure. 2026 was the first year without a single player with a one-handed backhand in a Grand Slam semi-final.

Musetti was one of the last to get there. He reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon in 2024 and at Roland-Garros in 2025, and rose to a career-high No. 5 in January 2026. Now ranked No. 24, he won the Lyon title this season.

He does not hide what the shot now costs. “The speed of the game is getting faster and stronger,” Musetti said. “You have to be more prepared physically to play a one-handed backhand, and you have to compensate a lot with the slice and the way you return.”

Musetti faces Zverev in his first match as World No. 1

Musetti leads Zverev 3-2 in their head-to-head, according to the ATP. The German plays his first match as World No. 1 on Wednesday, and Musetti could become the fifth man to beat a player in his first match at the top of the rankings. The Italian is 1-7 against World No. 1s, his only win coming against Novak Djokovic in Monte-Carlo in 2023.