Panagiotis Gionis forehand defensive stroke

david j Asked 8 years ago

Hi,

I have a question regarding one of the strokes of my favorite player, Panagiotis Gionis. He's a modern defender with the usual long pips on the backhand and inverted rubber (tenergy) on the forehand. What confuses me is that sometimes when a ball gets to his forehand and he can't use a smash or a topspin, he does not go for a forehand chop like other modern defenders often would, but instead he just holds his bat very flat and hits the ball back from a low position.

This looks like a really easy ball for the opponent, yet his opponents seem to have problems with it and i just can't see why that is, could you maybe look at it and tell me whats special about it?

an example would be in this video at 00:16 and at 00:55: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmSHh8tntow

Kind Regards,

David

Alois Rosario Answered 8 years ago

Hi David,

This can be a really awkward ball for an attacking player because he is keeping it really low and there isn't much pace on it to work with.  Add to that he is allowing some of the sidespin to go back on the shot which makes the ball kick slightly sideways sometimes.

He is basically trying to make sure that the attacker can't play a strong shot.  Sometimes if the attacker tries for too much off this difficult ball they will make a mistake.

It is a type of 'Fishing' shot.  This is basically a low flying... usually topspin shot without much pace on it.