I've become personally very mixed on the subject of "scouting players." If anything, I'll take advice from people who have beaten them before, and test it out in the warm up to see if it's still valid. (In my latest beatdown from a top junior, the advice was to hit into his body as he shanks a lot, I tried it during the warm up and his footwork was great and he was stepping around body shots with ease. Needless to say it wasn't going to be my plan of attack anymore!)
Most of the time if I try and do research I psych myself out and aim to only do that one thing, and if it doesn't work I get caught up in it mentally which is a fault of mine.
If I go in blind, and try and figure it out as I go, I usually will drop the 1st set pretty handily if my game doesn't match up well off the bat, which is pretty much equally as bad.
Really I can't offer any advice, but I feel where you're coming from! :razz:
P.S. Check out their serve, if they can hit a nice consistent serve in the warm up, it usually means that you're in for a long day!
-Fuji