Even good tennis players have awful strokes. Novak Djokovic became one of the all-time greats with an awful overhead smash.

Everything about Daniil Medvedev is ugly, yet he was able to win a grand slam. Elena Dementieva reached world number three with a pretty amateur serve.

Here is a list of the most awful strokes in tennis.

Awful Everything

Daniil Medvedev

Awful serves

Federico  Delbonis

Richard Gasquet

Paolo Lorenzi

Jelena Ostapenko

Sara Errani (and the grunts)

Katerina Siniakova

Jensen Brooksby

Elena Dementieva (deserves to be in the Hall of Fame for her serve)

Alison Riske

Sofia Kenin (no-look toss)

Awful Forehands

Earnests Gulbis

Adrian Mannarino

Lorenzo Musetti

Karen Khachanov

Richard Gasquet

Jack Sock

Awful Backhands

Matteo Berrettini (not ugly, but very weak)

Cameron Norrie

Jim Courier

Andy Roddick

Awful Overheads

Novak Djokovic

Awful Slice

Fabio Fognini

2021 WTA Finals in Guadalajara will be using pressureless balls. The reason for using pressureless balls is that Guadalajara, Mexico is about 5100 feet above mean sea level. At such a high altitude, air pressure is lower, and regular tennis balls can be difficult to control.

World number 1 Ashleigh Barty pulled out of the WTA finals for many reasons. One reason cited by her coach Craig Tyzzer was the ball to be used at the tournament.

Pressureless balls fly. If you use such a ball under normal conditions, it will not bounce. I don’t think it’s the best publicity for the best women in the world to play with something that they have never tried before. Under conditions that they do not know, in a country where they have not yet played and at this altitude. That just feels ridiculous.

– Craig Tyzzer

When asked about playing with pressureless balls, Iga Swiatek said:

I have no idea. I have to try this. I played in Madrid for the first time this year, and my shots were flying like crazy. So we made some adjustments, and by the end, I played really solid tennis. Guadalajara is going to be even worse, so I really need to get used to the conditions.

But Guadalajara was the only option available to the WTA for hosting the year-end finals after Shenzhen refused to host the event due to COVID-19 rules. But playing such a prestigious tournament using pressureless balls can make watching tennis unattractive for fans due to the high number of errors players are likely to make playing with pressureless balls.