We’re betting you have watched plenty of exciting table tennis matches in the Olympic Games, and also some games in the ITTF World Table Tennis Championship. You might know that China dominates the sport and the Chinese men’s team holds a record number of 20 world team championship titles.
Table tennis is the most popular sport in China. When Ma Long became the men’s singles World Champion in 2019, that made it three world titles in a row. In this article, we take a look at some of the greatest table tennis players of all time.
The list includes eight Chinese table tennis players. Ma Long, Jan-Ove Waldner, Kong Linghui, Liu Guoliang, and Zhang Jike are five of the players who have completed all the International Table Tennis Federation Grand Slams in their careers.
1. Ma Long
Born on October 20, 1988, Ma Long won his first championship in 2006. He is now one of the best players in the history of table tennis. An effective forehand attacker, Ma uses a close-range third-ball technique to confuse his opponents in most matches. At the beginning of his career, his approach was mostly forehand-oriented.
Today he dominates the games with his sturdy forehand loops and uses his backhand only for controlled returns to set up forehand shots. Known affectionately as The Dictator or The Dragon, this right-handed player uses the shake-hand grip to great effect. He has won a wide variety of awards in the Olympic Games and other competitions, as can be seen in the table below.
Awards
|
Games |
Type |
Gold Medal |
Year |
|
Olympic Games |
Single |
1 |
2016 |
|
Olympic Games |
Team |
2 |
2012, 2016 |
|
World Championships |
Single |
3 |
2015, 2017, 2019 |
|
World Championships |
Double |
2 |
2011, 2019 |
|
World Championships |
Team |
7 |
2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018 |
|
World Cup |
Single |
2 |
2012, 2015 |
|
World Cup |
Team |
6 |
2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2018 |
|
Asian Games |
Single |
1 |
2010 |
|
Asian Games |
Double |
1 |
2014 |
|
Asian Games |
Team |
3 |
2006, 2010, 2014 |
|
Asian Championships |
Single |
3 |
2009, 2011, 2013 |
|
Asian Championships |
Double |
2 |
2007, 2009 |
|
Asian Championships |
Mixed Double |
1 |
2009 |
|
Asian Championships |
Team |
7 |
2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017 |
|
Asian Cup |
Single |
4 |
2008, 2009, 2011, 2014 |
|
ITTF World Tour Grand Finals |
Single |
5 |
2008, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2016 |
|
ITTF World Tour Grand Finals |
Double |
1 |
2006 |
|
China National Games |
Single |
2 |
2013, 2017 |
|
China National Games |
Mixed Double |
1 |
2013 |
|
All China Table Tennis Championships |
Single |
1 |
2011 |
|
All China Table Tennis Championships |
Double |
2 |
2010, 2015 |
|
All China Table Tennis Championships |
Mixed Double |
1 |
2012 |
|
All China Table Tennis Championships |
Team |
3 |
2011, 2012, 2018 |
|
World Junior Championships |
Single |
1 |
2004 |
|
World Junior Championships |
Team |
2 |
2003, 2004 |
|
Asian Junior Championships |
Single |
1 |
2004 |
|
Asian Junior Championships |
Mixed Double |
1 |
2004 |
|
Asian Junior Championships |
Team |
1 |
2004 |
2. Jan-Ove Waldner
Waldner is one of the best table tennis players of all time, and his killer serves are part of the reason he is considered a legend in table tennis. Waldner did a lot to popularize the game of table tennis all around the world. He was born on October 3, 1965, in Stockholm, Sweden.
He played table tennis ever since the mid-1980s until his last match on February 11th, 2016, when he officially announced his retirement while playing in the Swedish first league for Ängby/Spårvägen. At the age of 7, Jan was already able to return 75 backhand shots in a row without making any mistakes.
At nine, he had already developed a good forehand loop. In a match, he could easily trick his opponents with many types of serves from a variety of different angles. Jan could find the perfect shot at an ideal angle in a thousandth of a second when the ball hit his paddle.
Awards
|
Games |
Type |
Gold Medal |
Year |
|
Olympic Games |
Single |
1 |
1992 |
|
World championships |
Single |
2 |
1989, 1997 |
|
World championships |
Team |
4 |
1989, 1991, 1993, 2000 |
|
World Cup |
Single |
1 |
1990 |
|
World Cup |
Team |
1 |
1990 |
|
European Championships |
Single |
1 |
1996 |
|
European Championships |
Double |
3 |
1986, 1998, 1996 |
|
European Championships |
Team |
7 |
1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2002 |
|
Swedish Championships |
Single |
8 |
1983, 1984, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1997, 2006, 2010 |
|
Swedish Championships |
Double |
6 |
1981, 1982, 1986, 1991, 1994, 1999 |
3. Kong Linghui
Kong is also considered one of the all-time greats of table tennis and he has now taken up the position as Head Coach of the Chinese National Women’s Team. Kong Linghui is famous for all of his titles in the men’s doubles competition when he played regularly with Liu Guoliang. A prolific sportsman, he was born on October 18, 1975, in Harbin, China. He often plays with a Butterfly Kong Linghui paddle and he uses the shake-hand grip the majority of the time.
Awards
|
Year |
Games |
Event |
Medal |
|
1995 |
World Table Tennis Championships |
Singles, Men |
Gold |
|
1995 |
Table Tennis World Cup |
Singles, Men |
Gold |
|
1996 |
Summer Olympics |
Doubles, Men |
Gold |
|
2000 |
Summer Olympics |
Singles, Men |
Gold |
|
2000 |
Summer Olympics |
Doubles, Men |
Gold |
4. Liu Guoliang
As mentioned earlier, Liu was an excellent doubles partner when he held court with Kong Linghui. He was the second man ever to achieve a Grand Slam of three major tournaments. He was born on January 10, 1976, in Xinxiang, Henan, and he was already a very good table tennis player when he was a child.
In 1991, at the age of 15, Liu was first chosen for the Chinese national team, which led him to professional table tennis. From 1991 until 2001, Liu was seen as one of the best table tennis players while he won many medals in this sport. He retired as a player after the 2001 season. Soon after his retirement, he became the youngest head coach of the Chinese men’s team at the age of 27.
His special playing style is based on the use of short pimped-out rubber. Liu uses a pen-hold grip and is the forerunner of the backhand reverse topspin. During his time of prominence, he won four medals in the Olympic Games, two of which are golds. With another gold and bronze medal in the World Cup, Liu became the most decorated male table tennis player in history.
Awards
|
Year |
Games |
Event |
Medal |
|
1995 |
World Table Tennis Championships |
Chinese Team |
Gold |
|
1996 |
Summer Olympics |
Singles, Men |
Gold |
|
1996 |
Summer Olympics |
Doubles, Men |
Gold |
|
1996 |
Table Tennis World Cup |
Singles, Men |
Gold |
|
1997 |
World Doubles Championships |
Doubles, Men |
Gold |
|
1997 |
World Table Tennis Championships |
Chinese Team |
Gold |
|
1999 |
World Doubles Championships |
Doubles, Men |
Gold |
|
1999 |
World Singles Championships |
Singles, Men |
Gold |
|
2000 |
Summer Olympics |
Singles, Men |
Bronze |
|
2000 |
Summer Olympics |
Doubles, Men |
Silver |
5. Zhang Jike
Zhang Jike was born on February 16, 1988, in Qingdao, China. He is well known for his shake-hand grip and he has performed especially well in the Olympic Games. Zhang became the fourth male player in the history of the game of table tennis to achieve a career Grand Slam when he won gold in the men’s singles tournament at the Olympic Games in London, 2012.
Awards
|
Year |
City |
Event |
Medal |
|
2012 |
London |
Singles |
Gold |
|
2012 |
London |
Team |
Gold |
|
2016 |
Rio de Janeiro |
Singles |
Silver |
|
2016 |
Rio de Janeiro |
Team |
Gold |
World Championships
|
Year |
City |
Event |
Medal |
|
2009 |
Yokohama |
Doubles |
Bronze |
|
2009 |
Yokohama |
Mixed Doubles |
Silver |
|
2010 |
Moscow |
Team |
Gold |
|
2011 |
Rotterdam |
Singles |
Gold |
|
2011 |
Rotterdam |
Doubles |
Gold |
|
2012 |
Dortmund |
Team |
Gold |
|
2013 |
Paris |
Singles |
Gold |
|
2014 |
Tokyo |
Team |
Gold |
|
2015 |
Suzhou |
Singles |
Bronze |
|
2015 |
Suzhou |
Doubles |
Gold |
|
2016 |
Kuala Lumpur |
Team |
Gold |
World Cup
|
Year |
City |
Event |
Medal |
|
2009 |
Linz |
Team |
Gold |
|
2010 |
Dubai |
Team |
Gold |
|
2010 |
Magdeburg |
Singles |
Silver |
|
2011 |
Paris |
Singles |
Gold |
|
2013 |
Guangzhou |
Team |
Gold |
|
2014 |
Düsseldorf |
Singles |
Gold |
|
2015 |
Dubai |
Team |
Gold |
Asian Games
|
Year |
City |
Event |
Medal |
|
2010 |
Guangzhou |
Doubles |
Gold |
|
2010 |
Guangzhou |
Team |
Gold |
|
2014 |
Incheon |
Doubles |
Gold |
|
2014 |
Incheon |
Team |
Gold |
|
2009 |
Locknow |
Singles |
Silver |
|
2009 |
Locknow |
Team |
Silver |
|
2011 |
Macau |
Singles |
Silver |
|
2011 |
Macau |
Team |
Gold |
|
2013 |
Busan |
Team |
Gold |
|
2015 |
Pattaya |
Team |
Gold |
6. Timo Boll
Boll is a German player born on March 8 in 1981, who spent much of his career playing for Borussia Düsseldorf. He is a left-handed player whose best weapon is his forehand topspin drive but he is also known for his rapid backhand loop. Boll’s technique was ahead of its time because he was one of the first two-winged loopers. He creates a spin-block instead of a passive block to put more pressure on his opponents.
He is seen as a hard-working, enthusiastic player who spends much of his time practicing and improving his skills. As a result, he has won many medals in a variety of international competitions such as the World Cup, European Champion, and World Championship Singles. With such achievements, Timo Boll is known for being one of the leading players when it comes to generating high amounts of spin, especially in his opening topspin serves.
Awards
|
Games |
Event |
Winner |
Year |
|
World Cup |
Single |
2-times |
2002, 2005 |
|
European Champion |
Single |
7-times |
2002, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2018 |
|
European Champion |
Team |
7-times |
2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2017, 2019 |
|
Europe Top-16 |
Single |
7-times |
2002, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2018, 2020 |
|
European Super Cup |
Single |
3-times |
2007, 2008 and 2009 |
|
German Championship |
Single |
11-times |
1998, 2001–2007, 2009, 2015, 2017 |
7. Xu Xin
Born on January 8, 1990, Xin is a professional player from China. In 2013, he first reached the No. 1 position in the World Rankings after he won the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals in December 2012. Since then, he has won many medals in international competitions, becoming one of the best ping pong players of all time.
Xu Xin is a pen-hold grip player like Wang Hao and Ma Lin. His long arms and frame let him to move quickly and reach widely around the table. His arms allow him to execute graceful, unique forehand loop shots. He has also adopted the reverse pen-hold backhand grip (RPB), a recent development for many of China’s pen-holders, and this allows a two-winged attack. He still uses a traditional pen-hold (Chinese) backhand to lob and push the ball with the forehand side of his paddle.
Awards
|
Games |
Event |
Winner |
Year |
|
World Cup |
Single |
1 |
2013 |
|
World Team Cup |
Team |
6 |
2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2018 |
|
World Championships |
Double |
3 |
2011, 2015, 2017 |
|
World Championships |
Mixed Double |
2 |
2015, 2019 |
|
World Championships |
Team |
5 |
2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018 |
|
ITTF World Tour |
Single |
18 |
2010 – 2020 |
|
ITTF World Tour |
Double |
28 |
2009 – 2019 |
|
ITTF World Tour |
Mixed Double |
6 |
2018 – 2019 |
|
ITTF World Tour Grand Finals Champion |
Single |
2 |
2012, 2013 |
|
Olympic Games |
Team |
1 |
2016 |
|
Asian Games |
Single |
1 |
2014 |
|
Asian Games |
Mixed Double |
1 |
2010 |
|
Asian Games |
Team |
2 |
2010, 2014 |
|
Asian Championships |
Single |
1 |
2019 |
|
Asian Championships |
Double |
2 |
2009, 2015 |
|
Asian Championships |
Mixed Double |
2 |
2012, 2019 |
|
Asian Championships |
Team |
6 |
2009, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 |
|
Asian Cup |
Single |
4 |
2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 |
8. Wang Liqin
Liqin was born in Shanghai on June 18, 1978, and he started his career in the 1990s. During his time, he won three majors and was ranked number one by the ITTF for 25 consecutive months, from September 2000 to September 2002. Liqin retired from professional table tennis in 2013.
Wang Liqin uses the shake hand grip. He plays a forehand-dominant style with the occasional backhand loop to open a topspin rally. Because he is quite tall, this gives him additional leverage for acceleration and momentum and creates more powerful shots. Liqin was known to frequently change his paddles. He used more than ten different paddles, some of them for a long period of time.
Wang won the gold medal in doubles at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, and the bronze medal in singles at the 2004 Summer Olympics held in Athens, Greece, as well as at the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing, China. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Wang won a gold medal in the team competition with Ma Lin and Wang Hao. For most of 2004–2006, he ranked as the world’s best table tennis player.
Awards
|
Games |
Type |
Gold Medal |
Year |
|
Olympic Games |
Double |
1 |
2000 |
|
Olympic Games |
Team |
1 |
2008 |
|
World Championships |
Single |
3 |
2001, 2005, 2007 |
|
World Championships |
Double |
2 |
2001, 2003 |
|
World Championships |
Mixed Double |
2 |
2005, 2007 |
|
World Championships |
Team |
4 |
2001, 2004, 2006, 2008 |
|
World Cup |
Team |
3 |
2007, 2011, 2013 |
|
Asian Games |
Single |
1 |
1998 |
|
Asian Games |
Mixed Double |
1 |
1998 |
|
Asian Games |
Team |
2 |
1998, 2002 |
9. Ma Lin
He was born on February 19, 1980, in Shenyang, China. Ma Lin has the distinction of being the only male player ever to win Olympic gold medals in Singles, Doubles, and Team events. Additionally, he holds a professional era record of five major titles (4 World Cups and 1 Olympic Gold), having won more World Cups than any other male table tennis player in the history of the game.
Awards
|
Games |
Type |
Winner |
Year |
|
Olympic Games |
Single |
1 |
2008 |
|
Olympic Games |
Double |
1 |
2004 |
|
Olympic Games |
Team |
1 |
2008 |
|
World Championships |
Double |
1 |
2007 |
|
World Championships |
Mixed Double |
2 |
1999, 2003 |
|
World Championships |
Team |
6 |
2001, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 |
|
World Cup |
Single |
4 |
2000, 2003, 2004, 2006 |
|
World Cup |
Team |
2 |
2007, 2011 |
|
Asian Games |
Mixed Double |
1 |
2006 |
|
Asian Games |
Team |
3 |
2002, 2006, 2010 |
|
Asian Championships |
Double |
1 |
1998 |
|
Asian Championships |
Mixed Double |
1 |
1996 |
|
Asian Championships |
Team |
3 |
1998, 2000, 2007 |
10. Wang Hao
Hao was born on December 15, 1983, in Jilin Province, China. He was ranked #1 on the official ITTF world rankings for 27 consecutive months: from October 2007 to December 2009. He was known to use the Reverse Pen-hold Backhand (RPB) with exceptional skill.
During his career, he appeared twelve times in major world competition finals, which remains a record. In men’s singles, he won the Asian Championship, Asian Cup, Asian Games, and Chinese National Games at least once. Wang Hao retired from the national team by the end of 2014.
Awards
|
Games |
Type |
Gold Medal |
Year |
|
Olympic Games |
Team |
2 |
2008, 2012 |
|
World Championships |
Single |
1 |
2009 |
|
World Championships |
Double |
2 |
2005, 2009 |
|
World Championships |
Team |
5 |
2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014 |
|
World Cup |
Single |
3 |
2007, 2008, 2010 |
|
World Cup |
Team |
4 |
2007, 2010, 2011, 2013 |
|
Asian Championships |
Single |
2 |
2003, 2007 |
|
Asian Championships |
Team |
3 |
2003, 2005, 2007 |
|
Asian Cup |
Single |
2 |
2005, 2006 |
