Game and skills analysis Ma Te (China)

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

Here comes Game and skills analysis Ma Te (China):

Nice “Best-of”:

Great match! I can not recall Xu Xin having ever lost to a defender! As I try to categorize defenders in users of long and short pips I would be grateful if anybody comes up with a reliable (!) information on what pips Ma Te uses. There are a lot of rumours out there. Some say short pips (I doubt it!) some say TSP Curl P-R1 (possible but unlikely). It might be in between and medium long.

Strengths:

• very versatile playing style, one of the rare defenders using the long pips on forehand to defend on short very spinny topspins into his forehand, a dangerous weapon.
• good footwork
• good Forehand Topspin on pushes and good Counter topspinning
• consistent backhand chop (short pips as far as I can see)
• nice use of the different Rubbers to push, block and Topspin with both sides
• good backhand Topspin on pushes

Weaknesses:

• occasionally the shot pips return fast Topspins too high
• variety of serves could still increase a bit
• footwork could still improve a bit (but he is still Junior, so that normal)
• Forehand defense is rather going “round” the ball putting it back too high instead of chopping it upside down to Keep it low and with much backspin. So

Suggestions:

• practice Forehand chopping the ball back low and with more backspin
• practice “Floating” backhand defence balls back in order to avoid a high defence that easily gets punished
• practice more versatile serves

Game and skills analysis SHIONO Masato (Japan)

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

Here comes SHIONO Masato (Japan):

This is really as good as it gets!!!

An important update due to his phantastic wins in the Japan Open 2013:

 

 

 

 

 

nice and intense double:

Strengths:

• very good footwork, very fast and good overall fitness
• occasionally nice heavy chop on backhand defense.
• consistent though not always “deadly” forehand topspin, solid but occasionally not fast enough
• consistent blocking and counterspinning on his forehand, sometimes a little slowish
• good backhand serves
• good deceptive twiddling of the bat, occasionally using (presumably short) pips on the forehand to defend on heavy loaded topspins

Weaknesses:

• is not using wrist enough to get more spin and power to topspin and chop
• not great variety of forehand serves
• very rare backhand blocking or topspins

Suggestions:

• should use the pips more often to unexpectately block the ball
• should practice more forehand serves
• should try to use more wrist when pushing or chopping the ball

Game and skills analysis Polina MIKHAYLOVA (Russia)

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

Here comes Polina MIKHAYLOVA (Russia):

Strengths:

• Very good footwork
• Very dynamic forehand topspin
• good forehand smash especially on higher pushes
• Very versatile playing style combining defending, forehand topspin, backhand smash and a various forehand and backhand serves.

Weaknesses:

• Unfortunately a great variety in strokes also often leads to less consistency in each of the styles which is the case here. At least the defence chops on both sides should be more consistent
• Uses the forehand smash against topspins into her forehand too often and missing too much of them
• backhand defence often has too few backspin making it too easy for the opponent to accelerate following topspins
• tends to serve long most of the time.
• forehand defence often does not have enough chop to prevent opponent from forcing point with next fast topspin.

Suggestions:

• should try to use forehand countertopspin as an alternative to forehand smash or forehand chop
• should consider taking long pips (I suppose she has short or medium long pips) in order to get heavier backspin on the ball and more different spin when pushing
• should consider using short serves with a great variety of spin.