Mima Ito Playing style

I like to play close to the table. So I’d like to play like Mima Ito who is currently ranked third in the world among female players.

She uses short pips on her backhand. When she returns ball during rallies, she pushes back the incoming ball forward, especially on her backhand side. She doesn’t use a conventional BH stroke. Actually she covers about 70-80% of the table using this style of play. She used her FH drive only when the ball come to the far right.

I use regular FH and BH strokes. But I have been thinking of stopping to swing a BH stroke and using her playing style.

What do you think of her playing style?

Hi Ken,

Mima Ito is a great player and has a style that is both simple but also difficult to implement.

The short pimples gives the backhand a simplicity but the flatter stroke adds difficulty because of the low margin for error over the net.

I would try the pimples on your backhand and see if you can adapt to the stroke.