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TT Worlds misses the biggest name

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-05-22 09:09

ZAGREB - Jan-Ove Waldner, the biggest name in the world of table tennis, isn't in the Swedish squad for the world championships, signaling that the Swede's career as a player is over.

The 41-year-old legend has more following in China than his country. When the news of a Waldner-less championships hit China, his admirers were upset.

"Waldner is the greatest ever table tennis player in the world and I watch table tennis on TV only because of him," said a message posted on a Xinhua website chatroom.

A netizen named Wal-Fan said in another message: "Waldner's retirement ends a great career of the most talented player on the earth. But I am glad to know that Waldner will come to the Beijing Olympics as a Sweden coach."

Reports by popular Chinese Web portals Sina and Sohu said Waldner will as a coach lead Sweden to the 2008 Olympics, without citing the source.

Anders Thunstrom, the head coach who marshaled the Swedes to beat the Chinese in the world championship men's team finals in the late 1980s and early 1990s, said here on Sunday that he hasn't heard about Waldner's decision to be a Sweden coach.

"If Waldner wants to be a coach, he will be a good one. But I have never heard of it," said Thunstrom, now the marketing director of the International Table Tennis Federation.

Instead, Thunstrom said Erik Lindh, who was on the same world championship winning team with Waldner, will very likely coach Sweden in the 2008 Games.

Waldner, who had for long time held Chinese in awe, is the first player in the world to have claimed a grand slam of Olympic, world championship and World Cup men's singles titles.

The other grand slam winners are Chinese Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui, who now coach the Chinese men's and women's team respectively.

Waldner, known for his deceptive serve, a brilliant touch and cool head, won his first world singles championship in 1989 and repeated the feat in 1997.

In the 1992 Olympics, Waldner beat Jean-Philippe Gatien to claim the men's singles gold.

Sweden has been looking for a successor to Waldner for the past decade, in vain.

"Waldner is the only one. He can't be duplicated," said Thunstrom.

Waldner's close friend Jorgen Persson, the 1991 world champion, will lead the Swedes in the Zagreb championships.

"With Persson aging and Waldner out, Swedish table tennis has returned to square one," said Thunstrom.

"When I was a head coach, the players and coaches were very dilligent, thinking about how to beat Chinese 24 hours a day. Situation is different now."

Waldner is still rated as Sweden's top ranked player as the world's No. 32. Persson is 38th with another veteran Peter Karlsson 44th.

The world championships will start on Monday and Chinese are expected to clean-sweep all the five titles, just as they did two years ago in Shanghai.