Tennis is played competitively all over the world. Much of its global appeal can be attributed to successful tennis performance depending on a variety of factors. While fitness, motivation and tactical prowess are undoubtedly important (Roetert et al., 1992), the mechanical efficiency of an individual's strokes often determine the success experienced by the recreational, competitive and/or elite tennis player. Bearing this in mind, it is essential for any tennis coach wishing to become more effective in observing, analysing and correcting errors in a player's performance, to gain a comprehensive understanding of the biomechanics associated with tennis stroke production. Fortunately, with the advent of standardized biomechanical analysis, quantitative information pertaining to optimal stroke production can be produced to complement a coach's subjective evaluation of technique. The serve along with the forehand and backhand are the strokes that dominate general play and comprise the nucleus of tennis stroke production. With the game continuing to evolve at a rapid rate, research efforts to keep abreast of the changes in stroke technique have often struggled to keep pace. Although significant inroads have been made to facilitate a coach's understanding of these three strokes, through analyses of advanced or intermediate level players or elite players at the junior level, there remains a dearth of information available on the mechanics of stroke production at the professional level. Clearly, as it is from the strokes of elite performers that coaches develop models of optimal technique, any attempt to quantify the kinematic characteristics of the forehand at the professional level would be of considerable value. The techniques used to hit the topspin forehand have changed considerably in recent years. Today's professionals use a variety of techniques that encompass variations in grips, stances, backswings and even forward swings. While, some of these factors have been heavily scrutinised by the scientific literature, it is only recently that the impact of a player's stance has come under the microscope. Research performed by Elliott and coworkers provides a comprehensive overview of forehand strokes played with a variety of different grips and with both the unit and multi-segment swings, yet it is the recent work of Bahamonde and Knudson (1998a, 1998b) that has evaluated the respective merits of the open and closed stances used during the production of the forehand stroke. While players can use both techniques interchangeably depending on the tactical structure of the rally, it is the forehand played with the open stance that has become such a feature of today's power game. The researchers analysed the forehands of seven teaching pros and eight intermediate level players to determine the kinematic and kinetic effectiveness and efficiency of the open and closed stance techniques. While it was suggested that there were only minor differences between the forward swings of the forehand stroke played with either stance, the researchers highlighted several advantages associated with the closed stance technique. Potentially, such findings could have significant implications on not only teaching methodology, but injury prevention procedures as well. Clearly further study is required to substantiate their validity at the professional level and in the process, further expand the information available on these two distinct forehand techniques. The ITF has taken a proactive role in this regard and anticipates that it will soon publish its findings from a study into the biomechanics of the closed and open stance forehand in professional tennis.
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