"I was ranked 687th in the world and I never hit a backhand in my life."

“The idea came from my father. He put me in tennis at a very young age - I held my first racket at the age of two - and trained me until I was 16: “Why have a backhand when you can only hit forehands?” he would say to me. This was true for the other sports I played. Football (with both feet), which I long preferred to tennis for its team aspect, badminton and even... golf. Until I was 12, half of my clubs were left-handed even though I am right-handed!

In tennis, this two-forehand style quickly became natural for me, I never changed it, even when we moved to Scotland with my family, when I was 4 years old. Besides, no one ever tried to dissuade me from it, I don't think my father would have liked it (laughs). He's Czech, with rather harsh Eastern methods. As a result, I've never hit a backhand in my life!

But I quickly got the hang of it. When you have two forehands, you're not limited by your other hand. You have a better reach than the others. I gain half a meter and take one less step to reach the ball on the backhand. It's still very practical on high balls too. We know how difficult it is to return a ball that's domed on your backhand. You only have to look at how Roger Federer struggled with Nadal's topspin his entire career.

"If you can master the serves with each hand, you can hit a lot of areas. Not to mention smashes: I won a lot of points when I was lobbed backhand!"

Another benefit is that if you can master the serves in each hand, you can hit a lot of areas and choose the most effective one depending on the opponent you're facing. Not to mention smashes: I won a lot of points when I was lobbed backhand! No high backhand volleys to do, then! Finally, the fact of offering a different game really disrupts my opponents. I remember a Future tournament (3rd division of the circuit, after the ATP tournaments and the Challengers) in Latvia where the guy, who was leading, kept grumbling about my game. He said I didn't know how to play. I found that funny.

Otherwise, the real difficulty when you have two forehands is on fast surfaces, on shots and situations where you might run out of time. The return of serve, for example, which forces me to block on one side. Balls to the body, volleys. I have one hand at the bottom, another at the top of the handle, with a grip sometimes very close to the frame when I release the bottom one. I only do forehand slices, which is perhaps less effective than a backhand chop.

"When I watch the videos, I find my two forehands technically very similar." Nicolas Rosenzweig in Angers last March, during the French Over-35 Team Championship. (P. Lahalle/L'Équipe)

I climbed to world No. 687 in 2012. I had no coach to support me. In Scotland, I had no support, and it was financially difficult. I studied in Edinburgh and then in Stirling, earned a Master's degree in high-level coaching, and then left for Spain at 22 to devote myself 100% to tennis. It was already too late. However, playing only forehands never limited my progress. On the contrary, I won many more matches thanks to it.

I had a rather physical game. Thanks to my reach, I defended well, and I didn't get many winning points. There were lots of variations, changes of trajectory, but I always had trouble accelerating the ball, so I had to be very solid to force the other player into making a mistake, to annoy him. The guys laughed, "The tactic against Nicolas? It's to play him on the backhand." I've heard that one 150 times. I love the tactical aspect of this sport. There's always an optimal response to each ball, like in chess. You just have to be good enough to find it.

Two serves, lots of possibilities... but twice as much time spent practicing the technique in training. (P. Lahalle/L'Équipe)

My left arm has always been weaker than my right, especially since a nasty shoulder injury. I play faster on my right side but I put more spin on my left. My topspin and slice seem better to me. But when I watch videos, I find my two forehands very similar technically. On the tour, I always tried to play very high on my opponent's backhand and wait for the short ball to get into the court. Like Nadal did, by shifting to play only my forehand. Except that with my technique, I didn't have to shift. I saved myself steps of adjustment. And then there was the serve, which I could slice diagonally on both sides to get my opponent out of the court and open up the court for myself. On the other hand, two serves also mean twice as much time in training to work on this shot.

I've made a few semi-finals on the Futures circuit, I was the British University Champion three years in a row, the French 35-year-old champion in 2022, and 3rd at the 35-year-old World Team Championships. Today, I'm curious to see what the young ambidextrous players who have emerged in recent years at Les Petits As will do, Teodor Davidov (doubles winner in 2024) or Lucas Herrera Sanchez (singles semi-finalist in 2025). I have a 4-year-old son and everyone asks me if he'll play like me. I'm not sure he'll want to play yet. And as for the two forehands, we have time, we'll see.