Kou Lei vs Ayano

[dingyibvs]

That's interesting, when I watch Ayano play, I actually feel that the best aspect of her play is how consistently she returns serve. But sure, I get that there is a huge difference between 2300 and 2800.

Just having a look at the USATT rankings, I see the highest ranked US-trained players are Kanak and Lupulesku.

Kou Lei, Ma Jinbao, Xin Zhou are all ranked very high, and funnily all from the bay area. Are all of them professionally trained from China? as in former national team or provincial team players?

Kou Lei was once in the CNT, and both Ma and Zhou played for Shandong.

 

[vvk1]

In the off chance that the OP might gain an appreciation for Kou Lei's level, I found it interesting that Ayano just posted her video of her match with Kou Lei, and in the video description she said: "The one thing I can say is his I had no idea how to return his service....lol"

And Ayano's level is around USATT 2300.

Reverse pendulum serve is Kou Lei's signature serve. Ayano is a much better player than I am (or will ever be) but having played other pro-level players in Grand Prix events here in UK, like Vlasov or McBeath, who use that serve quite a bit it is really not surprising that even she found it very tricky. At that level, reverse pendulum serve is very tight and fiendishly difficult to read and return, let alone do anything positive with it, especially for an amateur player, no matter how advanced.