Table Tennis Hall of Fame
The strongest table tennis players have largely come out of China but there have also been many notable players from Germany, Belgium, France and Austria. Below is a list of players who have made significant achievements in table tennis:
Richard Bergman(Austria) - Regarded as the best defensive player in history, Bergman won seven World Championships during his professional career.
Andrzej Grubba (Poland) - One of the best Eastern European players in the history of the sport, Grubba won the World Cup in 1988, three bronze medals at the World Championships as well as medals at twelve European Championships.
Jiang Jialiang (China) - World Champion of two consecutive competitions, Jialiang is known for his extremely effective service return.
Kong Linghui (China) - Becoming the third Grand Slam winner in 2000, Linghui won three Olympic medals, two World Cup titles and a gold medal at the World Championships during her career.
Ma Lin (China) - One of the world’s most feared players today, Lin won the table tennis World Cup in 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2006 as well as the gold medal for doubles at the 2004 Olympics.
Angelica Rozeanu (Denmark) World Champion six times between 1950 and 1955, Rozeanu also won twelve silver and five bronze medals at the World Championships.
Anna Sipos (Hungary) During her career, Sipos won medals at twenty one World Championships including 11 gold medals.
Jan-Olve Waldner (Sweden) - The only singles champion to win the World Championships without losing a game, Waldner popularised the ‘shake-hand’ grip and was known for inventing variations of common strokes during competitive matches. Cao Yanhua(China) - A seven times female world champion, Yanhua lost only one match during four International Table Tennis Championships.
Deng Yapping (Chinese) Three times world singles champion, Yapping also won the doubles world championships three times and won two Olympic gold medals.
Cai Zenhua(China) - A world champion five times, Zenhua was the head coach of the Chinese team for ten years from 1990, leading the team to more victorious matches than any other country.