The following observations are of course my personal view and do not claim to be the “truth”!
Here comes Maria Malanina (Russia): One video/one set is not enough to do a thorough analysis. So just a few observations.
Strengths:
- good footwork, especially when defending spinny topspins into her forehand with the backhand
- quite consistent defending on both forehand and backhand
Weaknesses:
- not sure: backhand serves only?
- occasionally takes spinny topspins too early/too high thus returning the ball to high
- no twiddling of the bat at all during rallies.
Suggestions:
- get greater variety of serves
- practice twiddling the bat especially when confronted with slow spinny topspins into her forehand (use long pimples then) and when confronted with a long push or stop ball into her backhand use pimples in to push back with heavy chop in order to prevent fast topspins from the opponent.
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