Lorenzo Musetti single-handedly keeps one-handed backhand year-end Top 10 streak alive

This week on Tennis.com, we'll be featuring five storylines—one a day—that came out of the ATP and WTA's 2025 year-end rankings.

So far, we've covered how this is the first time since 2004 that four American women finished a year inside the Top 10, as well as how Novak Djokovic—at 38 years young—just became the oldest player to finish a year inside the Top 4 in ATP rankings history.

Today, one player single-handedly keeps a historic streak alive...

For six weeks in 2024—from February 19th to April 1st, to be exact—there were no players with one-handed backhands in the Top 10 for the first time in ATP rankings history. That ended more than 50 years of tradition, as ATP rankings began on August 23rd, 1973.

But then Grigor Dimitrov saved the day, returning to the Top 10 and staying there the rest of the season, finishing the year at No. 10.

History repeated itself in 2025, as for eight weeks—five between January and March, then another three between April and May—there were no one-handed backhands in the Top 10 again.

But then, in the middle of his breakthrough clay-court season, Lorenzo Musetti made his Top 10 debut on May 5th, and he's been in the elite ever since, finishing the year at No. 8 last week.

So although we've had a few short periods in 2024 and 2025 without one in the Top 10, thanks to Dimitrov last year and Musetti this year, there's still been at least one player with a one-handed backhand in every single year-end Top 10 in ATP rankings history.

But when we say that Musetti is single-handedly keeping the streak alive, we mean it. He's not just the only one-hander currently in the Top 10, he's actually the only one currently in the Top 20—the first time there's only been one one-hander in the year-end Top 20.

Denis Shapovalov is currently the next-highest, at No. 23.

And this is the fifth year in a row that there's only been one one-handed backhand in the year-end Top 10 on the ATP rankings. Before this stretch, that had only happened one time, in 2009.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS WITH ONE-HANDED BACKHANDS IN EVERY ATP YEAR-END TOP 10 (listed in reverse chronological order):

• 2025: 1 [Musetti]
• 2024: 1 [Dimitrov]
• 2023: 1 [Tsitsipas]
• 2022: 1 [Tsitsipas]
• 2021: 1 [Tsitsipas]
• 2020: 3 [Thiem, Federer, Tsitsipas]
• 2019: 3 [Federer, Thiem, Tsitsipas]
• 2018: 2 [Federer, Thiem]
• 2017: 4 [Federer, Dimitrov, Thiem, Wawrinka]
• 2016: 2 [Wawrinka, Thiem]
• 2015: 3 [Federer, Wawrinka, Gasquet]
• 2014: 2 [Federer, Wawrinka]
• 2013: 3 [Federer, Wawrinka, Gasquet]
• 2012: 2 [Federer, Gasquet]
• 2011: 2 [Federer, Almagro]
• 2010: 2 [Federer, Youzhny]
• 2009: 1 [Federer]
• 2008: 2 [Federer, Blake]
• 2007: 4 [Federer, Gonzalez, Gasquet, Robredo]
• 2006: 5 [Federer, Blake, Ljubicic, Robredo, Gonzalez]
• 2005: 3 [Federer, Ljubicic, Gaudio]
• 2004: 3 [Federer, Henman, Gaudio]
• 2003: 2 [Federer, Philippoussis]
• 2002: 3 [Federer, Henman, Costa]
• 2001: 5 [Kuerten, Rafter, Haas, Henman, Sampras]
• 2000: 4 [Kuerten, Sampras, Corretja, Henman]
• 1999: 3 [Sampras, Kuerten, Krajicek]
• 1998: 6 [Sampras, Corretja, Rafter, Henman, Rusedski, Krajicek]
• 1997: 4 [Sampras, Rafter, Rusedski, Muster]
• 1996: 4 [Sampras, Muster, Becker, Krajicek]
• 1995: 3 [Sampras, Muster, Becker]
• 1994: 5 [Sampras, Becker, Edberg, Berasategui, Stich]
• 1993: 5 [Sampras, Stich, Edberg, Muster, Pioline]
• 1992: 6 [Edberg, Sampras, Becker, Korda, Lendl, Krajicek]
• 1991: 8 [Edberg, Becker, Stich, Lendl, Sampras, Forget, Novacek, Korda]
• 1990: 8 [Edberg, Becker, Lendl, Sampras, Gomez, Muster, Sanchez, Gilbert]
• 1989: 6 [Lendl, Becker, Edberg, McEnroe, Gilbert, Mancini]
• 1988: 6 [Lendl, Becker, Edberg, Hlasek, Leconte, Mayotte]
• 1987: 7 [Lendl, Edberg, Becker, Cash, Noah, Mayotte, McEnroe]
• 1986: 6 [Lendl, Becker, Noah, Edberg, Leconte, Gomez]
• 1985: 6 [Lendl, McEnroe, Edberg, Becker, Noah, Curren]
• 1984: 7 [McEnroe, Lendl, Gomez, Sundstrom, Cash, Teltscher, Noah]
• 1983: 7 [McEnroe, Lendl, Noah, Arias, Higueras, Clerc, Curren]
• 1982: 7 [McEnroe, Lendl, Vilas, Gerulaitis, Clerc, Noah, McNamara]
• 1981: 7 [McEnroe, Lendl, Clerc, Vilas, Teltscher, Gerulaitis, McNamara]
• 1980: 6 [McEnroe, Vilas, Lendl, Clerc, Gerulaitis, Teltscher]
• 1979: 6 [McEnroe, Gerulaitis, Tanner, Vilas, Ashe, Higueras]
• 1978: 6 [Vilas, McEnroe, Gerulaitis, Gottfried, Ramirez, Barazzutti]
• 1977: 7 [Vilas, Gerulaitis, Gottfried, Orantes, Ramirez, Nastase, Stockton]
• 1976: 6 [Nastase, Orantes, Ramirez, Vilas, Panatta, Gottfried]
• 1975: 8 [Vilas, Ashe, Orantes, Rosewall, Nastase, Alexander, Tanner, Laver]
• 1974: 8 [Newcombe, Laver, Vilas, Okker, Ashe, Rosewall, Smith, Nastase]
• 1973: 9 [Nastase, Newcombe, Okker, Smith, Rosewall, Orantes, Laver, Kodes, Ashe]

Over on the women's tour, there hasn't been a one-handed backhand in the Top 10 in more than nine years, since 2016—that year there were two in the Top 10, with Roberta Vinci in the elite until September and Carla Suarez Navarro in there until October.

It's been 15 years since a woman with a one-handed backhand finished a year in the Top 10—Italy's Francesca Schiavone was the last one to do it in 2010, the year she won Roland Garros.

Tomorrow, a young star sets a new record...