Photo Tour of the One-Handed Backhand Grips

The Continental grip places your palm on the upper right slant bevel, 45 degrees clockwise from the Full Eastern. This makes the racquet face tend to tilt upward, which is appropriate for hitting slice. Hitting flat backhands with the Continental is fairly easy despite the weaker support of the racquet handle, and you can meet the ball through a wider range of points of contact, either farther back than you could with either Eastern grip, which gives you more time to prepare your shot, or as far forward as Eastern, which gives you more power than you would get farther back. Meeting the ball with a Continental grip at an Eastern point of contact requires a slightly awkward wrist position, though. The big drawback of the Continental grip is its limited suitability for hitting topspin, but many advanced players, including some pros, like to slice most backhands anyway, so Continental backhands are still fairly common.