Zheng Jie’s backhand gains more than compliments despite loss to Serena Williams

WIMBLEDON, England – Tennis nuts and other assorted humans once swooned over Steffi Graf’s forehand, until Graf departed the premises and left the loveliest-shot-in-the-game honors to Justine Henin’s backhand.

Now that Henin suddenly and stunningly retired in May and left the game bereft of that picturesque shot, it’s clear the honors could go to a backhand so pleasing to the eye that it left Centre Court gasping serially on Thursday.

Zheng Jie’s backhand, previously known only to the world’s scarce doubles enthusiasts – she won the 2006 Wimbledon doubles title – wowed the tennis intellectuals in the crowd during her semifinal against Serena Williams. She might have to reach the top 20 to give the backhand its deserved eminence, but she clearly has that capacity, having reached No. 27 in 2006, and preparing to bolt from No. 133 to No. 41 after this heady run.

From her 5-foot-4 1/2 frame, she often blasted the backhand cross-court and across the giant’s helpless feet for winners. Sometimes, she’d jump on one of Williams’ second serves, use the backhand and just blow the ball by her, almost an optical illusion given the size difference of the players.

“That girl is tough as nails,” said Serena Williams’ father and co-coach, Richard Williams. “She is unreal.”

She also won over the rest of the audience, which seemed in awe of the backhand, which, like Graf’s forehand and Henin’s backhand, looks as if she were born to hit it. Odd for somebody who got started rather late (10 years old, training with many kids at the same time) and comes from China, where people play tennis mostly on tables.

It’s two-handed, clean and crisp and often quite low, searing just above the net, this backhand. “I’ve always been aware that my backhand is stronger than my forehand,” she said through an interpreter.

It’s odd, then, that when she held a set point against Williams, who served at 5-6, 30-40, Zheng got an 80-mph second serve and netted … a backhand. She wheeled around in despair, the chance gone.

She said she over-thought it, but she soon walked off to swells of cheers anyway. She’d lost the semifinal but won new admirers. The knowledgeable Wimbledon crowd knew it had witnessed someone – and someone’s backhand – completely refreshing.