RACQIX ACADEMY BLOG

The inside-out forehand: when running around your backhand pays

Every player knows the moment. A ball arrives toward your backhand corner — not a killer, just a ball — and you feel the pull: step around it, turn it into a forehand, and hit the shot you actually want to hit. That is the inside-out forehand: a forehand struck from the backhand side of the court, sent crosscourt into the opponent’s backhand corner. It is one of the defining patterns of modern tennis, and one of the easiest to misuse.

Why players buy it

The reason is simple: for most players the forehand is the bigger, heavier, more trusted attacking shot, especially when there is time to set. The numbers show how far the habit goes. Among the top 30, balls received on the backhand side are split close to evenly between backhands and run-around forehands, and some players lean on the pattern far harder — Alex de Minaur, for instance, hits around 70% of those balls as inside-out forehands (Serve Plus One). Used well, the pattern lets you dictate with your best shot, push the opponent into their weaker corner again and again, and build the point on your terms.

The cost is court position

Nothing here is free. To run around the backhand you have to travel into the corner, which leaves the whole forehand side of your court open behind you. Your recovery is longer, and you are balanced toward the wrong side if the reply comes back quickly. A good opponent reads the pattern: they take the next ball early into the space you vacated, or play behind you as you sprint back. The inside-out forehand buys offence with position, and the bill arrives one shot later. That is why the same player can look dominant hitting it against a passive opponent and lost hitting it against one who changes direction early.

When it pays — and when it doesn’t

It pays when the incoming ball gives you time: a reply that lands short or central, sits up, or arrives without much pace, against an opponent pinned behind the baseline. It pays when you can hit it with intent — heavy crosscourt to the backhand corner, or angled to pull the opponent wide — rather than rolling it back from a stretch. It does not pay when you are rushed, deep or reaching: then the run-around turns a playable backhand into a late forehand and an open court. The honest read is the ball, not your preference. If you are choosing the inside-out because you avoid your backhand rather than because the ball invited it, a decent opponent will find out within a game.

One practical detail decides more of these points than the swing does: the first step back. Hit the inside-out and your recovery step has to start before the ball crosses the net, moving diagonally toward the middle rather than admiring the shot from the corner. Players who recover late experience the pattern as a leak; players who recover early experience the exact same shot as pressure. The forehand gets the credit, but the feet decide whether the trade was worth it.

The switch: inside-in

The pattern has a built-in second act. After several inside-out forehands have pulled the opponent toward their backhand corner, they begin to lean that way — and the line up your forehand side, the inside-in, opens. The switch works precisely because the pattern established the expectation. Hit inside-in too early and there is no surprise to spend; never hit it and the opponent camps on the crosscourt forever. Reading when the expectation is strong enough to break is the skill that turns a habit into a pattern.

Train the read

In the Academy, Inside-out forehand pressure and Build with inside-out forehands train keeping the pattern, while Inside-in forehand surprise and Recognize the inside-in opening train the switch. Train it: the Inside-out forehand pattern collects all four. Train this pattern in the Academy →