TT World selects best technical paddlers
As the ancient saying goes, a perfect animal has the eyes of the hawk, strength of the bear, blood-thirst of the wolf and speed of the leopard but that animal only exists in a dream. Unlike soccer, basketball or volleyball, table tennis is an individual game that exposes each player's strengths and weaknesses
Below are winners of different technical disciplines in the men's game as voted by Table Tennis World Magazine.
Best forehand: Wang Liqin, China
The lanky Wang has the strongest muscle groups in table tennis, the result of years of hard training.
Best backhand: Kalinikos Kreanga, Greece
Before playing table tennis, Kreanga practiced gymnastics. No wonder he can flex his arm in his backhand loop in a way that nobody else can.
Best serve: Liu Guoliang, China
No one has reached Liu Guoliang's height in terms of serving with pips-in and pips-out rubbers.
Best receiver: Liu Guoliang, China
Liu has different ways to receive serves. He can loop, smash, push, chop-block and flip serves.
Best short ball: Ma Lin
While Liu Guoliang has the best receiver, Ma Lin is the most consistent and dangerous in short returns.
Best footwork: Ryu Seung -min, South Korea
South Koreans, mostly playing with pip-in rubber in the penhold grip, have the best footwork in the world.
Best tactics: Liu Guoliang, China; Ryu Seung-min, South Korea
Around 1995, Liu Guoliang was the world's most tactics-conscious player. Since then Ryu has caught up with his Chinese rival.
Best choppers: Ding Song, China; Joo Se-hyuk, South Korea
South Korean Joo Se-hyuk and Chinese Ding Song are the best and most crowd-pleasing defensive players in the world.
Xinhua
(China Daily 05/08/2007 page22)
