Game and skills analysis Evgueni CHTCHETININE (Belarus)

The following observations are of course my personal view and do not claim to be the “truth”!

Here comes CHTCHETININE Evgueni (Belarus):

Strengths:

• good footwork
• very good and consistent backhand defense. Lately also with choppier pimples than he used to play.
• good and choppy defense on the forehand sometimes with awkward and unusual sidespin
• very good and consistent pushing on both side and with heavy backspin on the forehand
• good twiddling of the bat when pushing a lot thus making it difficult for the attacker to get down to his backhand with fast topspins.

Weaknesses:

• no great attacking skills
• forehand topspin very rarely a winner, not enough speed and/or spin
• no forehand countertopspin, thus being an “old school” defender and very unlikely to surprise by attacks or strange strokes.
• backhand defense only, no surprise possible for the attacker when playing down the backhand all the time
• no great variety of serves, nearly no winner serves
• no defense with long pimples on the forehand when confronted with heavy slow topspins.

Suggestions:

• practice more dangerous serves
• practice counterspinning with the forehand
• practice occasionally blocking with the long pimples on the backhand
• practice defending with long pimples on the forehand

Game and skills analysis Fan Ying (China)

The following observations are of course my personal view and do not claim to be the “truth”!

Here comes Fan Ying (China):

Strengths:

• good footwork
• very good fast and/or spinny forehand topspin
• good backhand and forehand defense
• consistent pushing capabilities with the long pimples

Weaknesses:

• no particularly sophisticated and dangerous serves
• forehand defense often comes back to high or long due to taking the ball too early or too high. To be fair one must admit that rare female players can hit topspins so hard and fast as Vacenovska showed here.
• often returns block balls into her back hand to high and gets punished by smashes.

Suggestions:

• practice defending with the forehand taking the ball lower or later
• practice defending deceptive “floats” with here forehand. Ball should be returned fast, low and with nearly no backspin.
• occasionally use the long pimples when defending slow spinny topspins down into her forehand
• absolutely use pimples in occasionally to hard chop back pushes down her backhand
• practice counterspinning slow topspins into her forehand with heavy side spin
• should practice a greater variety of serves particularly shorter ones with various spin.