Hi, Just interested to find out which top men's players are currently serving forehand in badminton. Please list any player you know. E.g. Jan O Jorgensen, Ajay Jayaram. Most likely men's players in singles would serve forehand. Any in Men's doubles? Mixed doubles? Let us all know. Thanks.
I'm more interested to know since when backhand serve started to dominate. If you see the 80's badminton videos, majority still serve forehand, so I think it must be in the 90's, but when?
Think it was when the score system changed, because it became foolish to provide any opportunity to attack.
According to Thomas cup finals, it was 2002 where the backhand become dominant, so I think it was between 2000-2002. The scoring did change from 15 points-best of 3 to 7 points-best of 5, so it makes smaller room for errors. I also think the change is a combination of these factors: 1. opportunity to attack 2. Racket- shuttle technology and other equipments 3. Players are more patient 4. Tendency to play safer 5. Better defence 6. Better Stamina plus with video sharing sites like youtube and streaming links, we can easily see and copy players technique. It makes badminton players more vulnerable as their strength and weakness are already known beforehand.
I don't know when it really changed, but the change in serving rules also made a big difference. The racket shaft facing downwards is significantly different from the old "racket head discernibly below the hand", and you can serve from much higher these days. I think the main reason for change (back in around the 90s) was racket technology - when rackets became lighter, you could serve easily with a short swing. Technology change made it possible, and serving rule changes made it popular.
