Photo Study of Novak Djokovic's Strokes

Novak Djokovic uses a full Western forehand grip, which is best suited to hitting heavy topspin and handles high balls particularly well. With any forehand grip from Eastern through Hawaiian, the racquet face should naturally point downward at the farthest back point of the backswing for a topspin stroke, because the racquet face naturally opens up as you swing forward, and by starting off facing downward, it ends up vertical at contact. With a Western grip, the downward angle is more pronounced, because the Western point of contact needs to be more forward due to the 90-degree difference between the plane in which the palm rests and the plane of the strings.