Game and skills analysis Maria Dolgikh (Russia)

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

Here comes Maria Dolgikh (Russia):

Strengths:

• good footwork
• nice twiddling of the bat when pushing and defending
• nice placement of pushes and defensive balls into different corners of the table
• consistent defending on backhand and most of the time on forhand
• good forehand smashes on high pushes down her forehand

Weaknesses:

• generally too much defending only which becomes too predictable on the long run
• Forhand defending on heavy topspins occasionally return too high
• has to develop more attacking skills (details below)
• no great variety of serves
• footwork could improve when confronted with topspins into her body

Suggestions:

• practise greater variety of serves
• practise more attacking with forhand topspins on pushes down her forehand or middle of the table
• practise counterspinning topspins down her forhand with heavy side spin when far off the table
• practise disruptive “loops” with long pimples when confronted with repetitive pushes down her backhand
• practise backhand topspins with pimples in  when confronted with repetitive pushes down her backhand
• practise defending with deceptive “floats” on forehand with pimples in when confronted with heavy spin topspins