Hey! This is definitely a tricky shot that lots of players struggle with. My suggestion would be to find something in between a passive block and a counter topspin. So an active block which keeps the ball low and doesn’t give the opponent an easy attack. Once you get comfortable with this you can start building in counter topspin shots and improving those.
To play an active block and stop it being passive and weak, you have to close the bat angle of course as you mentioned. But you also need to add some slightly downwards and forward pressure during the contact. If you just let a heavy topspin hit your bat it will still kick up high and easy to attack. You you need to imagine and visualise that you are pressing down over the ball as you contact and squashing the spin down. By doing this you can also place the ball into a more difficult area for the opponent. The contact should be soft with a relaxed grip and not hard, otherwise the spin will kick the ball up again.
So try to be relaxed and gently press down and guide the ball into the position you want. I hope this makes sense and is helpful. Once you begin getting comfortable with these I would suggest working on the counters and then you can surprise opponents when they play this heavy open up shot! 🙂
