The following observations are of course my personal view and do not claim to be the “truth”!
Here comes Yuki Shoji (Japan), winner of the US open 2017:
Strengths:
- very good footwork
- consistent defending with both forehand and backhand
- good forehand smashing on pushes
- good forehand defending on smashes
- good backhand serves
- good sidespin pushes with backhand often generating high return pushes from opponent that can be smashed.
Weaknesses:
- no great variety of serves
- not topspinning with forehand on pushes at all
- no counterspinning from far off the table
- maybe material issue: Pimples seen short or medium long. They do not make a big difference when pushing and twiddling
- does not attack with backhand at all even though material (short pips) would support this
Suggestions:
- work on more versatile serves
- use forehand topspins more often
- use attacking style more often (forehand topspin on pushes, backhand blocks or smashes)
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