Monica Seles didn’t just hit the ball hard. She made it feel as if the ball had barely bounced before it was already screaming back at her opponent. From either side, she could take a rising shot early, drive it deep, and send it sharply across court—or change direction down the line before a defender had time to settle. Her secret weapon looked unusual, too: two hands on the forehand and two on the backhand.
That combination helped reset expectations for what baseline tennis could look like in the women’s game. Seles didn’t invent the two-handed forehand, and she wasn’t the only player bringing more power to the court. But she turned an unconventional grip into a brutally effective system at the sport’s highest level. The result was a new kind of pressure: less time for opponents, fewer safe replies, and no obvious “weaker” side to target.
Why Seles’s Two-Handed Strokes Were So Different
Plenty of elite players use two hands on their backhand. The two-handed forehand, by contrast, has always been rare at the top of the sport. Seles used both hands on both groundstrokes, making her entire baseline game feel compact, coordinated, and ready to fire.
With two hands on the racket, a player can feel stable through contact and control the racket face against a fast incoming ball. That doesn’t automatically mean more power: strength, timing, technique, and racket speed all matter. But in Seles’s hands, the setup supported a compact swing that let her meet the ball early and drive through it with remarkable conviction.
Her game wasn’t built around waiting several feet behind the baseline for a ball to drop into a comfortable hitting zone. Seles often struck on the rise, taking time away from the other player. Think of the difference between returning a serve after it has climbed and slowed, and redirecting it while it is still coming at you. Seles wanted the second version. Her opponent had less time to read the shot, move, and prepare the next ball.
That early contact also made her angles especially dangerous. A defender might expect a crosscourt reply, start recovering toward the middle, and then watch Seles change direction down the line. Because she could attack from either wing, opponents couldn’t simply funnel the ball to one side and wait for a softer response.
Power Was Only Half the Story
It’s tempting to describe Seles as a power hitter and leave it there. That misses what made her pressure so hard to handle. She paired pace with depth, early timing, and the willingness to redirect the ball. A fast shot that lands short can be attacked; a deep shot that arrives early can pin a player behind the baseline. Seles frequently made the opponent deal with both problems at once.
She could also hit forcefully without needing a huge backswing. Against a quick, penetrating ball, a large swing can be tough to organize in time. Seles’s compact preparation helped her turn an opponent’s pace back on them. On return, that mattered enormously: instead of merely getting the ball back into play, she could make the server defend immediately.
There was a mental effect, too. If one side isn’t an obvious target, a player has fewer chances to build a pattern around it. Seles could strike from both wings, change direction, and keep the ball coming deep. Her opponent had to stay alert from the first shot of a rally—not just brace for the forehand or probe a backhand.
A quick comparison of the tactical trade-off
| Feature | What Seles’s two-handed setup offered | What it demanded |
|---|---|---|
| Contact against pace | A stable, compact response that could redirect a hard ball | Precise timing and good positioning |
| Attack from either wing | Dangerous depth and direction changes on both sides | Consistent footwork to arrive balanced |
| Preparation | A short, direct route to contact on many groundstrokes | Less freedom to reach far outside the body than with one hand |
| Rally pressure | Early contact could rob opponents of recovery time | Taking the ball early left little margin for late footwork |
The trade-offs are important. Two hands can help stabilize a shot, but they also keep the player’s arms connected to the racket. A one-handed forehand generally offers more reach and can be easier to improvise with when a ball pulls a player wide or low. Seles had to solve those situations with movement and positioning, not by simply extending one arm farther toward the ball.
How Seles Changed the Pace of Women’s Tennis
Seles arrived as the women’s game was already evolving. Rackets, training, athleticism, and tactics were changing, and other champions were hitting with serious force. Steffi Graf, for example, could produce devastating pace with her forehand. So it would be wrong to credit Seles alone with the rise of power tennis.
What she changed was the picture of how that power could be delivered. Her game showed that a player did not need a conventional one-handed forehand to attack from the baseline. She could use a short, two-handed action to hit hard, take the ball early, and threaten from both sides. Power wasn’t simply a matter of swinging bigger; it could come from timing, balance, and taking away the opponent’s space in time.
The results made the point impossible to ignore. Seles won nine Grand Slam singles titles, including eight before the 1993 stabbing that interrupted her career. At just 16, she won the 1990 French Open, defeating Graf in the final. She went on to become one of the dominant players of the early 1990s and reached No. 1 in the world.
Those achievements gave her unusual authority as a model. A young player might admire an unconventional stroke, but seeing it succeed at the very top is different. Seles demonstrated that the two-handed forehand wasn’t just a curiosity. It could be the foundation of a champion’s whole attacking game.
Influence Without Copycats Everywhere
Here’s the twist: Seles helped expand the sport’s idea of what was possible, but her exact technique never became the standard. The two-handed backhand is now a familiar part of elite tennis. The two-handed forehand remains an outlier. Most top players still use one hand on their forehand and two on their backhand.
That doesn’t mean Seles had no influence. Her example made the stroke easier to take seriously, and later players—including Marion Bartoli, who won Wimbledon in 2013—showed that a two-handed forehand could be used to succeed at the highest level. But copying Seles exactly was never the only measure of her impact. Coaches and players could take lessons from the ideas behind her game: prepare efficiently, meet the ball early, build patterns around both wings, and treat the baseline as a place to create pressure rather than merely survive it.
Her career also shows why an unusual style doesn’t automatically become a widespread one. A technique has to suit the player. Two hands on the forehand may offer stability and a compact hitting action, but they can make stretched or awkward contacts more demanding. A young player who tries to copy the grip without Seles’s timing, movement, and practice may inherit the limitations without gaining the benefits.
And Seles’s influence sits alongside the wider development of the sport. Racket and string technology, improved physical preparation, and faster baseline tactics all helped shape modern power tennis. It would be too simple to say today’s harder-hitting game is a direct result of one player. A better way to put it: Seles made one radical-looking version of aggressive baseline tennis impossible to dismiss.
The Sound, the Speed, and the Pressure
Seles is also remembered for her loud grunts, which became part of the public conversation around her game. They were distinctive, but they weren’t the source of her power. The real story was what happened at contact: early timing, a firm racket face, and the ability to send the ball back with pace and purpose.
Watch the tactical effect rather than focusing only on the noise. An opponent hits a deep ball, expecting time to recover. Seles takes it early and drives it back deep. The opponent is still moving when the next shot arrives. That’s the pressure loop she created. Her power didn’t just make the ball difficult to return; it made the next decision harder to make.
Her career was interrupted when she was stabbed during a match in Hamburg in 1993. She returned to competition in 1995 and won the Australian Open in 1996. That return is part of the story, but so is the scale of what came before it: Seles had already shown the sport how much trouble a player could cause by attacking early from both sides.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Monica Seles invent the two-handed forehand?
No. The stroke existed before her, but Seles became its most famous and successful practitioner. Her achievements showed that it could be a championship-level weapon, not just an unusual technique.
Did using two hands make Seles more powerful?
Not by itself. The two-handed setup helped her create a compact, stable stroke, but her pace came from the whole package: timing, racket speed, balance, positioning, and early contact. Two hands can suit one player and limit another.
Why don’t more professional players use a two-handed forehand?
It has real trade-offs. The grip can support compact, forceful contact, but it may limit reach and make some stretched or low balls harder to handle. Most players find a one-handed forehand fits their movement and shot-making better.
What was the biggest tactical advantage of Seles’s style?
She could attack early from either wing and change direction without offering opponents a clear side to target. By hitting deep and taking time away, she made it difficult for rivals to settle into a comfortable rally pattern.
Final Thoughts
Monica Seles reshaped power and pace not by making every player copy her grip, but by proving how much pressure could come from an unconventional setup. Two hands on both sides gave her a compact, forceful way to attack early, redirect the ball, and keep opponents guessing. Her game was a reminder that power isn’t only about hitting harder. It’s also about hitting sooner, deeper, and from places your opponent hoped would be safe.
That idea still matters. The equipment and athletes have changed, but the tactical question Seles posed remains sharp: how much time can you take away before your opponent has no good answer?
