In tennis, a grip is a way of holding the racquet in order to hit shots during a match. The three most commonly used conventional grips are: the Continental (or "Chopper"), the Eastern and the Western. Most players change grips during a match depending on what shot they are hitting.
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In order to understand the grips, it is important to know that the handle of a racquet always consists of 8 sides, or in other words, has an octagonal shape. A square shape would hurt the hand, while a round shape would not give enough friction to gain a firm grip. The eight sides of the handle are called bevels. We can number the bevels from 1 to 8 as follows: if the blade of the racquet is perpendicular to the ground, the bevel facing up is #1. The one next to it rotating clockwise is #2 if you are right-handed, and counter-clockwise if you are left-handed, and so on.
The Continental grip, also called the Chopper grip or Hammer grip, is obtained when placing the hand such that the base knuckle of the index finger is right on the second bevel. It is naturally obtained when holding the racket as if it were an axe, for chopping. Hence the second name "Chopper grip". The Continental grip is suitable for a variety of shots and therefore is often taught to absolute beginners, so that they should not bother changing grips while learning the basics of the game. The Continental grip does not allow for much topspin on groundstrokes. Since modern tennis, especially clay court tennis, has shown an evolution towards topspin, the Continental grip has gone out of fashion with professional players for hitting groundstrokes. It is still the preferred grip for serves and volleys. The rest of the grips strike a balance between high spin capacity on one hand, and variety and control on the other hand. "center":
The Eastern Forehand grip is obtained when placing the hand such that the base knuckle of the index finger is right on the third bevel. It is naturally obtained when picking up a racquet lying on the ground, or "shaking hands" with a perpendicularly held racquet. The Eastern Forehand grip allows for more topspin on the forehand while keeping control, because the shift along the handle is only 45 degrees (from the multi-purpose Continental grip).
The Eastern Backhand grip is obtained when placing the hand such that the base knuckle of the index finger and heel of the hand are right on the 1st bevel. This is essentially the same as the Western forehand grip and allows for significant spin and control.
The Semi-Western grip is obtained by placing the hand such that the base knuckle of the index finger is right on the fourth bevel. This racquet grip is popular with baseliners who like to hit with much topspin and a ferocious amount of power. It gets more hand behind the grip, causing shots to result with more ferocity, and provides a contact point much farther out front.
The Western grip, is used by placing the hand such that the base knuckle of the index finger is right on the fifth bevel. Compared to the Continental grip, the blade has rotated 135 degrees. This forces the wrist in an uncomfortable twist but allows for the greatest possible spin.
This is basically equivalent to the Eastern Backhand grip, and the same face of the racquet is used to strike the ball.
The Western grip generates maximum topspin. Because of the angle of your tennis racquet when you use the Western Forehand grip, you should make contact with the ball a bit earlier than you would with the eastern forehand grip.
The basic Two-Handed Backhand grip, is obtained by holding the racquet in a regular Continental grip, then placing the left hand above holding it in a left-handed Eastern Forehand grip. Holding the racquet using two hands for the backhand is very common, but, there are many variations in the precise positioning of the two hands. This also varies between right and left handed players.
For a number of years the small, apparently frail 1920s player Bill Johnston was considered by many to have had the best forehand of all time, a stroke that he hit shoulder-high using a Western grip. Few top players used the Western grip after the 1920s, but in the latter part of the 20th century, as shot-making techniques and equipment changed radically, the Western forehand made a strong comeback and is now used by many modern players. With the changes in technology, the various grips have become used very differently than previously mentioned. First, the Continental grip is used primarily to serve and to volley, not to hit forehand shots, or a backhand slice. The eastern grip is still used, though far less than in the past, and is used to hit very flat shots. It is excellent to hit low passing shots. The most popular grip on the tour, and for "weekend warriors," is the Semi-Western grip. It gives a nice mix of spin and pace on the forehand, and offers ease to transition to the backhand grip. Finally the Western grip (and its extreme variations), are some of the most radical grips used on the tour, mostly by clay-courters, and are used to create massive amounts of topspin.
The backhand can be executed with either one or both hands. For most of the 20th century it was performed with one hand, using either a backhand Eastern or Continental grip. In modern tennis, there are a few professional players who use a Western one-hand backhand. This shot is held in a similar manner to the Western forehand. It has more topspin potential than for the traditional Eastern one-hander, although it is difficult to hit low balls with this grip. It is virtually impossible to drive a high ball with topspin with an eastern grip without risk of serious injury. It is used by most pros with strong single-handed backhand drives, like Gustavo Kuerten, Roger Federer and Richard Gasquet among the men and Justine Henin among the women.
The two-handed backhand is most commonly used with the forehand hand holding the racquet with a Continental grip and the non-dominant hand holding the racquet with an Eastern forehand grip. While this is by far the most common way to hit a two-handed backhand, there are players who use different ways of holding the racquet for a two-handed backhand.
The player long considered to have had the best backhand of all time, Don Budge, had a very powerful one-handed stroke in the 1930s and '40s that imparted topspin onto the ball. Ken Rosewall, another player noted for his one-handed backhand, used a deadly accurate slice backhand with underspin through the 1950s and '60s. Both of them used an Eastern grip. Currently, Roger Federer, who uses an eastern grip, is noted for having a backhand that can drive the ball, impart dramatic spin, slice it deep, or hit a deadly drop shot. He is however, like all who employ an eastern grip, vulnerable to high bouncing balls and is forced to either slice the ball while still high in the air, take it low and early, or allow the ball to drop to a comfortable height.
Against powerful claycourters who employ strong western grips and can drive high bouncing balls with great force, there is often not enough time to take the ball on the rise, and many speculate that this weakness is the explanation for Rafael Nadal's dominant record against Federer on the high-bouncing clay, where slice is less effective.
The first notable players to use two hands were the 1930s Australians Vivian McGrath and John Bromwich. The two-handed grip gained popularity in the 1970s as Björn Borg, Chris Evert and Jimmy Connors used it to great effect, and it is now used by a large number of the world's best players, including the Williams sisters. One reason is that most professionals have played tennis from an early age, when they were not strong enough to hit a one-handed backhand. Most professionals who use a two-handed backhand often return hard-to-reach balls with a one-handed backhand. They also often use the one-handed backhand slice in rallies as it is a comfortable shot. Andre Agassi in particular increased his use of the one-handed backhand and often hit an otherwise unreturnable dropshot with it.
The grip for the serve depends on the type of serve. At professional levels, the top spin serve (with lots of spin), is hit with a chopper grip. The server stands at an angle to the baseline, so that he can turn during the service and make contact with the racquet squarely on the ball.
At professional levels, the slice serve is most commonly hit with a Continental grip. The server tosses the ball a little to the right of his body (if he is right-handed) and cuts the ball at the side to impart spin. For a right-hander, the slice serve curves to the left, and is useful in pulling the opponent out wide, or serving into his body. Many players, however, use an Eastern backhand grip for their spin serves; this gives the racquet even more angle as it sweeps across the ball.
There are two types of kick (topspin) serves; the pure topspin serve, and the twist serve. The topspin serve is hit by using a Continental grip and the ball is thrown so that if it were to drop, it would land on the server's head. In the topspin serve, the racquet brushes across the ball to impart topspin. In the American twist serve or kick serve, the racquet is held with an Eastern backhand or Continental grip. The twist serve has both topspin and slice, and, when hit correctly, bounces in the opposite direction from the slice serve. Both these serves are used to make an effective serve that nevertheless has a high safety factor because they clear the net with a relatively high margin of space and use the topspin to pull the ball down into the service box.
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