Срезка осталась низкой, даром что накат был сильным.

Because after verbs like остаться / оставаться (to remain), Russian very often uses the instrumental for the thing’s resulting or continuing state.

So:

• Срезка осталась низкой = The chop remained low

Compare:

• Он стал врачом = He became a doctor
• Она осталась спокойной = She remained calm

Here, низкой is the feminine singular instrumental form of низкая, because срезка is feminine.

This is another predicate adjective, this time after быть in the past tense: был сильным.

With long-form adjectives after быть, Russian often uses the instrumental, especially in ordinary descriptive statements:

• Он был уставшим = He was tired
• Удар был сильным = The hit was strong

So:

• накат был сильным = the topspin/drive was strong

You may sometimes see nominative in other contexts, but instrumental is very common and natural here.

Осталась is:

• past tense
• feminine singular
• from остаться (perfective)

It agrees with срезка, which is a feminine noun.

The verb means remained / stayed. The perfective form here presents the situation as a completed fact or result: the chop ended up remaining low.

If you used оставалась instead, that would be imperfective and would sound more like an ongoing background description:

• Срезка оставалась низкой = The chop kept staying low / was remaining low

In this sentence, осталась is the more natural choice for reporting the outcome.

Даром что is a concessive expression meaning something like:

• even though
• although
• despite the fact that

So the sentence has a contrast:

• Срезка осталась низкой, даром что накат был сильным.
• The chop remained low, even though the topspin/drive was strong.

This expression can sound a bit more literary, idiomatic, or conversational depending on context. A more neutral alternative would be:

• хотя накат был сильным

Yes, in most cases you can replace it with хотя without changing the basic meaning:

• Срезка осталась низкой, хотя накат был сильным.

That is more straightforward and probably more familiar to learners.

The difference is mainly stylistic:

• хотя = neutral, very common
• даром что = more idiomatic, with a slightly expressive despite that feeling

So if you understand даром что as although / even though, that is exactly the right idea.

Because даром что накат был сильным is a subordinate clause.

Russian normally separates this kind of concessive clause with a comma, just as English separates even though... clauses in many cases.

Structure:

• main clause: Срезка осталась низкой
• subordinate concessive clause: даром что накат был сильным

So the comma is required.

In sports language, especially table tennis, срезка usually refers to a chop or backspin shot/stroke.

So this is probably technical sports vocabulary, not the everyday verb to cut.

That matters because without context, a learner might try to connect it directly with the verb срезать (to cut off), but here it is the name of a specific kind of shot.

In table tennis and similar sports contexts, накат refers to an attacking rolling shot, often translated approximately as:

• drive
• topspin drive
• sometimes simply topspin

The exact English term depends on the sport and the translation style, but grammatically in the Russian sentence it is just the subject of the second clause:

• накат был сильным = the drive/topspin was strong

Russian has no articles at all. So nouns like срезка and накат appear without words corresponding to a or the.

Whether English uses a, the, or no article at all depends on context and translation:

• Срезка осталась низкой could be
  • The chop remained low
  • A chop remained low
  • sometimes just The chop shot stayed low

Russian leaves that information to context.

Yes. Russian word order is flexible, because case endings show grammatical roles.

The given sentence is natural and neutral enough:

• Срезка осталась низкой, даром что накат был сильным.

But other orders are possible for emphasis, for example:

• Даром что накат был сильным, срезка осталась низкой.

That version foregrounds the contrast: Even though the topspin was strong, the chop remained low.

So the original order is not the only possible one; it is just one natural way to present the information.

Short-form adjectives do exist in Russian, but they are used in more limited ways and can sound more formal, literary, or stylistically marked.

In ordinary modern prose, after verbs like быть and остаться, the long-form adjective is usually what you expect:

• низкой
• сильным

Using short forms here would sound different in tone and would not be the default choice for most everyday contexts.

So for a learner, the safest pattern is:

• остаться + instrumental adjective
• быть + instrumental adjective in many descriptive past-tense sentences

It mainly describes a result in a specific situation.

That comes from several things working together:

• осталась is past tense and perfective
• the sentence refers to a specific event
• даром что... sets up a contrast with what might have been expected

So the sense is roughly:

• the topspin/drive was strong,
• but in spite of that,
• the chop still ended up low.

That makes it feel event-based, not like a timeless general truth.