Last month at the French Open, Novak Djokovic was asked about his overhead smash. He shook his head regretfully and laughed: "You're talking to the wrong person." The 24-time grand slam champion has mastered nearly every stroke, but the smash remains his Achilles' heel. The shot, widely considered the easiest in tennis, has cost him big matches and earned the nickname "Djokosmash" from fans. "It hasn't been really the shot that I was so confident in the last 10, 15 years of my career," Djokovic said. "I'm not a big fan of the smash."
Why the Smash Is So Tricky
Jannik Sinner, the men's world No 1, notes the shot's variability: "Sometimes you feel it very comfortably, you see the ball perfectly. And sometimes you struggle." Daniil Medvedev wonders if it's a talent you're born with: "There are a couple of guys on tour... they do it 10 out of 10 and I'm like: 'How?' With me, it goes up, down, right, left." Jack Draper, despite his confidence, had a notorious miss at Eastbourne this week, spraying a smash from right on top of the net. He admires Rafael Nadal's technique: "He gets so fast behind the ball to then goes forward."
The Mental Challenge
Leylah Fernandez highlights the mental aspect: "There's also that two seconds where you're thinking about it a lot... 'Let me hit the crap out of the ball.' But you've got to time it right." Diana Shnaider avoided smashes until age 14, then practiced 50 per session. Karolina Pliskova expects to make nine out of 10, but admits sun and wind can make it tricky. Flavio Cobolli, a French Open finalist, says: "Nine out of 10, I can do it." Even for the best, the overhead remains a shot that divides opinion and tests nerves.
