Ambidextrous 16-year-old Teodor Davidov turns heads at US Open: Serves with both hands, no backhand needed

Flushing Meadows has never seen a young player handle the ball quite like this. Teodor Davidov, a 16-year-old American, entered this year's US Open juniors with a weapon that almost no one on tour can replicate: he serves left-handed, he serves right-handed, and he switches within the same match. Davidov first turned heads in the boys' singles when his unusual style left opponents guessing with different spins coming from two sides. Though he exited in the first round of singles, he is still making his mark in the boys' doubles. On Monday, Davidov and partner Tyler Lee beat the Brazilian pair of Pedro Henrique Chabalgoity and Leonardo Storck Franca in the first round. The win helped his quirky playing style go viral on social media, with footage of his left-and-right serves becoming a highlight on the tournament's official channels. The most distinctive feature is that Davidov does not hit a backhand at all. When the ball comes to his right side, he plays a forehand with his right hand; when it comes to his left side, he quickly switches the racket and hits a forehand with his left hand. This gives him greater reach and better court coverage from both ends. Davidov explained his advantage to Reuters: "It gives me a lot more reach and I can get to more balls, more court coverage, as well as different spins. A lot of my friends who have played me, they always tell me how annoying I am to play with all the different spins." His unusual ability was discovered when he was eight years old. During a drill designed to improve his two-handed backhand, his father noticed something extraordinary: his son's left-hand strokes were too good for a player who was not naturally left-handed. The original idea was not to create a fully ambidextrous player, but simply to build a more balanced body to help his right-handed strokes. Over time, he started playing more with his left hand, hitting volleys and serves lefty, and gradually transitioned to a two-sided game. Throughout tennis history, almost no professional player has pursued an ambidextrous style at a high level. One of the rare names is Luke Jensen, nicknamed "Dual-Hand Luke," who won the French Open men's doubles in 2026. Davidov knows that history, but his goal is not to become a copy of anyone. "I wanna become the best I can be," Davidov said. "I really want this to go all the way." There is still debate about how far this playing style can go at the professional level, especially when opponents have time to adapt to his hand-switching in fast exchanges. But at 16, unpredictability has become a weapon that any opponent must spend time studying. For Davidov, junior tennis is just the beginning. He wants to prove that being different, when trained properly, can be a path to the very top.