Top 10 Table Tennis Players of All Time [HD]

Table tennis may come across as an easy sport to play. However, to be considered a top table tennis player, consistent training and hard work is required, as well as being able to perform at an international level for a number of years. Several players have come and gone, but there are only a few that come into people's minds when the topic of all-time greats comes into question. In this video, I give you my top 10 best table tennis players of all time. Number 10, Wang Hao. Wang Hao from Changshan, China, won his first-ever men's singles world championship in 2009. Although he retired from the game in 2014, he was once a three-time world champion, winning it in 2007, 2008 and 2010. Being a part of the dominant Chinese Olympic team, Wang Hao also has other accomplishments, winning silver medals in the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympics. Wang was also ranked No. 1 by the ITTF for 27 consecutive months from 2007 and 2009, and makes it into this list. Number 9, Ma Lin. Ma Lin, who started playing table tennis at the age of 5, became a member of the Chinese provincial team in the year 1990. Ma Lin joined the national table tennis team in 1994, and from then onward played many matches for his country and won many competitions. He was the men's world cup champion in the years 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2006. He also has three Olympic gold medals as he was Olympic doubles champion with Chen Qi in 2004, and both singles champion and team winner at the 2008 Olympics. Ma Lin retired in 2013 and is now serving as a head coach for Guangdong provincial team. He is remembered as an all-time great of the sport. Number 8, Ichiro Ogimura. Ichiro Ogimura started playing table tennis from the year 1948. In the 70s he was the key player who played in various ping pong diplomacy events. He won 3 English Open titles, 12 World Championship titles, which include 2 men's singles and 5 consecutive titles as a team. After his retirement he was involved in the Japanese Olympic Committee and Japan Table Tennis Association. Ichiro's name was inducted in the ITTF Hall of Fame in 1997. Number 7, Timo Boll. Timo Boll is a left-handed player and currently ranked 12 in the world, despite being 41 years old. Boll who currently plays for Borussia Düsseldorf has won several major competitions including the World Cup, European Cup and Single World Championships. He won the World Cup in 2002, 2005 and finished runners-up in 2008, 2012, 2017 and 2018, with the German national team. Timo Boll is considered the best German player as he has won 13 German World Championships. He will go down as one of the few European players to rival the Chinese during their most dominant era. Number 6, Liu Guoliang. Liu Guoliang has won all the major titles in world tournaments including World Championships, World Cup and Olympic Games. He is the second man to ever achieve a Grand Slam of three major tournaments. He won two gold medals in the 1996 Olympics including the Men's Singles title and the Men's Doubles title with Kong Ling Hui. Liu also won the Men's Singles in the 1996 World Cup, the World Doubles Championships in 1997 and 1999 with doubles partner Kong Ling Hui, and the 1999 World Singles Championships in Eindhoven. He was a member of the winning Chinese team in both the 1995 and 1997 World Table Tennis Championships. Liu retired after the 2001 season and was appointed as the head coach of the China's national men's team at the age of 27. On December 1, 2018, Liu was elected as president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, replacing Kai Zhenhua. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest players and coaches of all time. Zhu Xin is a Chinese table tennis player who has won 17 World Singles titles, 3 Men's Doubles titles, 2 Mixed Doubles titles, and has even won the World Championship five times in a team event. Xin is also a back-to-back winner of the World Tour Championship, a feat he achieved in 2012 and 2013, and has also won the Asia Cup twice, in 2013 and 2016. In his impressive career, Xin has also been a two-time World Championship semi-finalist, and was ranked No. 1 in the world for men's singles in 2013. He is known for being a instrumental part in one of the most dominant Chinese teams in table tennis history. Zhang became the fourth male player in the history of table tennis to achieve a career grand slam when he won gold in men's singles at the Olympic Games in London 2012. He won the 2011 World Table Tennis Championships, then the 2011 World Cup, and then the London Olympics in 2012, which made him the fastest player ever to win a Grand Slam. He achieved this Grand Slam in just 445 days. After the first Grand Slam, he won the World Table Tennis Championships in 2013 and the World Cup in 2014. Li Qin was the world's No. 1 table tennis player for 25 consecutive months from 2004 to 2006 according to the ITTF rankings, making him the second-longest-reigning world No. 1 in table tennis history. In addition to this, he is a three-time world champion, a bronze medalist at the 2004 Anthems Olympics and a gold medalist from the doubles at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. He also won the gold medal in the team competition alongside Wang Hao and Ma Lin at the 2008 Olympics. This impressive lifetime record is owed to his early start at the age of 6 when he started to develop his style and his break into the Chinese men's national team at 15 years old. Like many on this list, Wang is a renowned legend in the table tennis world. Waldner is often referred to as the Mozart of table tennis and considered by many as the best player of his generation. As of this video, he is the only person to win an Olympic table tennis gold medal representing a non-Asian country. Waldner won gold in the men's singles at 1992 Summer Olympics, becoming the first and to date only player not from China, Japan or South Korea to win an Olympic table tennis title. Eight years later, he won silver in the same event at the 2000 Summer Olympics, narrowly losing to Kong Ling Hui. In 2010 Waldner won his ninth Swedish championship, defeating Paa Gerol, who was born the same year Waldner became Swedish national champion for the first time. On 11 February 2016, Waldner played his last game in the Swedish first league for Angby, Sparbjörn and officially announced his retirement as a player. He is remembered as the first of only five male players in the history of table tennis to achieve a career grand slam and regarded by many as the face and king of table tennis. Number 1. Ma Long. Widely regarded as the greatest table tennis player of all time, Long started his career by becoming the Asian and junior champion in 2004. Long impressively holds the record for being the longest reigning number one in table tennis at 64 months, and has been the captain of the Chinese table tennis team since 2014. He has won five straight ITTF World Tournaments in a row and 28 ITTF World Tour titles, which is another record he holds. Long is also one of the five illustrious players to have completed a career grand slam and the only male player in the world to have won every single title in the sport. and two-time Olympic gold medalist in 2016 and 2020. Long also has numerous team and doubles awards which include nine World Championship gold medals and three Olympic gold medals. The success of Ma Long on an individual level as well as on a team level, make him the most successful player of all time. For more UN videos visit www.un.org