Who are the most famous table tennis players in the world? Find out here…
There are many ping pong players around the world, from Europe to Africa and America to Asia.
Since the origin of table tennis, there have been many notable players who have contributed to the sport’s development.
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Professional Table Tennis Players
Most people play table tennis for fun as amatuers or recreational players because they do not take the game seriously.
Professional players are excellent and take their game very seriously. They are highly skilled and play table tennis tournaments and world table tennis competitions.
The most dominant professional TT players in the world are the Chinese players.
Best Table Tennis Players
Who are the best ping pong players in the world today? The best players in the world rank highly at the ITTF world ranking.
The International Table Tennis Federation produces a list of top-ranking players every month. The table tennis ranking is a list of all the best male and female players in the world.
Doubtlessly, the Chinese players have always dominated the world table tennis ranking since it began.
Famous Table Tennis Players
Who are the most famous TT players in the history of table tennis? There have been great players who have played table tennis over the years. They can also be called table tennis legends.
Here are some famous ping pong players from the past to the modern-day the sport.
Zhuang Zedong
Zhuang Zedong is from China and was a significant player in the ping pong diplomacy that led to the United States team’s visit to China in 1971. He won three table tennis world championships from 1961 to 1965.
Zhuang Zedong is one of China best table tennis player in the history of table tennis. He won three world championships in his career. He was the major player in the ping pong diplomacy that led to the United States table tennis team’s invitation to China in 1971.
Glenn Cowan
Glenn Cowan, an American ping pong player, is also famous in table tennis for his role in the ping pong diplomacy and was part of the U.S.A team that visited China in 1971.
John Hilton
John Hilton is another famous TT player; he won the European table tennis championships using a combination racket of ordinary and anti-spin rubbers in 1980.
Jan-Ove Waldner
Jan-Ove Waldner is another famous player in modern-day table tennis. He led the Swedish team that defeated the Chinese team in 1989.
Olympic Table Tennis Players
Table tennis was introduced in the 1988 Olympic Games held in Seoul South Korea. Yoo nan kyu of South Korea became the first Olympics table tennis champion.
The Chinese players have won most of the gold medals since table tennis became an Olympic sport.
The Swedish players led by Jan-Ove Waldner have also excelled in the Olympics by beating the Chinese team and dominated the sport between 1989 to 1993.
The Swedish table tennis players have been the only team players that have challenged the Chinese table tennis supremacy in the last 50 years.
Chinese Table Tennis Players
In the history of table tennis, the Chinese have dominated both in the male and female categories of the world table tennis ranking. The top male Chinese players are Ma Long, Zhang Jike, Wang Hao and Ma Lin, while the top female players are Ding Ning, Guo Yan, Liu Shiwen and Guo Yue.
In 1989 Chinese dominance was seized by Swedish table tennis players led by Jan-Ove Waldner, they defeated the Chinese team in the world championship of that year. After some few years, China regained its dominance of the sport up to this day.
Famous Chinese Table Tennis Champions
Deng Yaping
One of China best table tennis player in the female category is Deng Yaping. She won four Olympic gold medals in 1992 and 1996, and 18 world titles.
China dominates the world ranking…
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Wang Liqin
Wang Liqin is a Chinese table tennis player. As of October 2011, he is ranked 8th in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).
Ma Lin
Ma Lin is a Chinese table tennis player. He is the world’s number seven ranked player as of 04 January 2012 in the International.
Wang Hao
Wang Hao is a Chinese table tennis player. He became the World Champion in Men’s Singles in Yokohama, Japan in May 2009, defeating 3-time World Champion Wang Liqin 4-0.
Wang Nan
Wang Nan is a female Chinese table tennis player from Liaoning. Wang remained as world number one female table tennis player on the ITTF ranking system from January 1999 to November 2002. She is left-handed.
The secret of Chinese Table Tennis Dominance
What is the secret of Chinese dominance in table tennis? In China, table tennis is a national sport. It is just the way basketball is viewed in the United States.
Chinese table tennis players train very hard and are also very disciplined. It is not easy to qualify for the Chinese national table tennis team.
There are so many good players in China, and they spend so much time training together developing new techniques and tactics that are superior to other countries players.
Because of the abundance of talented players in China, the Chinese players have to try very hard to qualify for their national team list.
Chinese players, who do not make the national team in China, have to immigrate to other countries. It is why Chinese players can be seen playing for countries like the United States, Canada. France, Poland, to mention a few.
A typical example is Wang Chen, a female Chinese player who immigrated to the United States in 2000 represented America at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
ITTF Waiting Period Rule
After the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the International Table Tennis Federation introduced waiting periods to prevent players from representing other countries after immigrating.
The reason was because of the increase of Chinese players representing other countries in world table tennis tournaments. It was making it impossible for other younger players to excel in their own countries.
A player can now only represent other countries in world table tennis events if they are less than 21 years old when they move out of their own country.
Players under the age of 15 must wait for 3 years before they can be eligible to play for other national associations while players between 15-18 years old must wait for 5 years and players between 18 -21 years old must wait 7 years, respectively.
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Warren Davies
