Being one of the most successful countries in the table tennis scene, Sweden has produced many legends like Jan Ove Waldner, Jorgen Persson and Mikael Appelgren. They have also been relatively successful in the last 5 years with players like Mattias Falck, Kristian Karlsson and more recently Truls Moregardh going to the finals of major tournaments. However, it wasn't always like this as there was a period of time in which there was not a single Swedish player ranked in the top 20. Looking at the graph below, we can split the table tennis history into 3 main eras. The rise and dominance of the Golden Generation (1985-1995), the fall and dark ages (1996-2015) and the comeback (2016-today). The Rise and Dominance of the Golden Generation (1985-1995) During this time, table tennis was becoming more and more popular with the first World Cup being held in 1980 and table tennis being recognised as a sport at the 1988 Olympics. As the then 30 years old Stellan Bengtsson slowly faded away ...
In this post, I will go through who I think are the top 10 table tennis players of all time, the Messi and Ronaldo's of table tennis. I will take into consideration their individual trophy cabinet, longevity, rankings when they were active and their overall playing ability on the table. A few of the players on the list are still currently playing though most of them have already retired. Before we begin, some honourable mentions include Zoran Primorac, Xu Xin, Timo Boll and Werner Schlager. Number 10: Vladimir Samsonov Having just announced his retirement before the Olympics started, the Belarusian giant is one of the best European players of all time. He makes it on this list because of his incredible longevity in the game and his all around steady mix of offensive and defensive play. Staying at the top 10 in the world for 15 years is an amazing feat by itself but he also holds the second most ITTF Pro Titles (27) right behind Ma Long. Other notable achievements i...