By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
I couldn’t help be feeling while watching the Joao Fonseca vs. Jannik Sinner third round match at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California that this could be the hardest hitting match I have ever watched. Late in the second set, Fonseca hit a forehand that, according to Mark Petchey on The Tennis Channel, was clocked at 120 mph and nearly knocked over Sinner on the baseline
Jim Courier, in the Tennis Channel commentary booth with Petchey, even said that Sinner was lucky to not get injured by the blast by having the awkwardly get out of the way, let alone avoid a direct hit to the body.
The speeds of forehands being hit are not a mature stat in the history of tennis, unlike the documentation of players who have hit the fastest serves in tennis. But in unofficial recorded history, where does the Fonseca forehand against Sinner land all-time?
TennisTV, the official ATP match broadcasting operation, posted on X/Twitter a list of the fastest recorded forehand ever hit. The fastest ever recorded forehand was hit by not only Gael Monfils but Andy Murray, who both blasted forehands at 124 mph during their careers. Monfils hit his forehand in 2022 at Indian Wells while Murray blasted his in 2017 in Cincinnati. The Tennis TV list is here
https://x.com/tennistv/status/1504416017035972608?s=43>
The Fonseca forehand against Sinner would rate at No. 3 forehand hit in recorded history. Fonseca, however, lost the match 7-6(6), 7-6(4), despite leading 6-3 in the first-set tiebreaker.
Not included in this list is this forehand by James Blake, which anecdotally people say may be the fastest ever hit but was before the Hawkeye technology was installed at tennis matches and thus the speed was not recorded.
