Tweener

The tweener or between-the-legs shot is a difficult tennis shot where a player hits the ball between their legs. It is typically performed facing away from the opponent, when the player attempts to recover a lob and has no time to turn back around, and hits the ball backward between their legs. Forward-facing tweeners, sometimes called “front tweeners”, are also occasionally employed.

In competitive matches the tweener is a crowd-pleasing, seldom used last resort, but it is a common trick shot in exhibitions. Players who famously executed the backward shot include the pioneer Guillermo Vilas (whose version was called the “Gran Willy”), Yannick Noah, Ilie Nastase, Gabriela Sabatini (whose version became known as “the Sabatweenie”), Roger Federer, Juan Martín del Potro, Nick Kyrgios, Daria Kasatkina, Agnieszka Radwańska, Simona Halep and Novak Djokovic.