18 Best Ping Pong Players Of All Time

Table tennis is not the most sought-after game worldwide, but it holds the most sincerity and popularity in Asia. As a result, China has dominated the international scene. While I’m well aware of current and recently retired players, I’m less familiar with players of old.

So come along with me as we revisit the best ping pong players that have graced the marvelous game of table tennis.

Male Ping Pong Best Players — Major Gold Medal Achievements

NameWorld ChampionshipsWorld CupOlympic Games
Ma Long1395
Jan-Ove Waldner621
Ma Lin963
Zhang Jike763
Xu Xin1072
Wang Hao972
Wang Liqin1132
Ichiro Ogimura12Not held yetNot held yet
Fan Zhendong671
Kong Linghui812
Liu Guoliang712

Female Ping Pong Best Players — Major Gold Medal Achievements

NameWorld ChampionshipsWorld CupOlympic Games
Wang Nan1554
Deng Yaping954
Zhang Yining1044
Ding Ning8103
Li Xiaoxia973
Qiao Hong1042
Guo Yue1032

#1 Ma Long

ping pong best players
Flickr (XIAOYU TANG) under CC BY-SA 2.0 – Original
  • Nationality: Chinese
  • Playing style: Right-handed, shakehand grip
  • Born: October 20th, 1988
  • Olympic Games: 5 gold medals

Who is the best ping pong player in the world? That’s easy, it’s Ma Long. He is considered China’s star table tennis player because of his achievements and professionalism. He has also been the captain of the Chinese team since his early years. Part of what makes Ma Long such a spectacular player is his impeccable form, particularly his forehand: he has one of the best forehands of all time.

He has won a total of 16 medals in the world championships from 2006 to 2013, and 9 World Cup gold medals continuously from the year 2009 to 2019.

Ma Long has an extraordinary record of holding the number one spot in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) for a whopping 64 months. No other male player has reached this length in the history of table tennis.

Additionally, he became the first male tennis player globally who has won every singles title in ping pong. Ma Long is also the first and only player who has won two consecutive singles at the China National Games.

#2 Wang Nan

ping pong best players
Flickr (Michel) under CC BY 2.0 – Cropped
  • Nationality: Chinese
  • Playing style: Left-handed, shakehand grip
  • Born: October 23rd, 1978
  • Olympic Games: 4 golds and 1 silver medal

Wang nun is a talented female Chinese player who dominated women’s table tennis. She held the top rank globally from January 1999 to November 2002. She began playing table tennis when she was seven years old and, throughout her career, developed a very fast and consistent style.

Wang nan won the women’s singles title at the competitive Swedish Open in the year 1994. She also twice won the Women’s World Table Tennis Cup and the American and China Open in 1997 and 1998.

She again earned two gold medals in the 2000 Summer Olympics. Eight years later, in the 2008 Summer Olympics, she made it to the finals but lost to Zhang Yining. However, she won the team gold for the host country.

Wang has been the leader of the Women’s TT team in China since Deng Yaping’s retirement.

#3 Ma Lin

ping pong best players
Flickr (Doha Stadium Plus Qatar) under CC BY 2.0 – Original
  • Nationality: Chinese
  • Playing style: Right-handed, Chinese Penhold grip
  • Born: February 19th, 1980
  • Olympic Games: 3 gold medals

Ma Lin is a famous ping pong player who started his table tennis journey at the age of 5. With immense practice and extraordinary talent, he became a provincial team member in 1990. Soon after, he joined the Chinese national team and experienced widespread success.

He is the only player in the male category to win the Olympic gold medal in all singles, doubles, and team competitions. He’s also the only male player to win five singles events at the Table Tennis World Cup.

Ma Lin has an aggressive style and is well known for his tricky and unpredictable serves, fast footwork, and third-ball attacks.

After his retirement in December 2013, he served as a professional head coach for the Guangdong provincial table tennis team.

#4 Deng Yaping

  • Nationality: Chinese
  • Playing style: Right-handed, shakehand grip
  • Born: February 6th, 1973
  • Olympic Games: 4 gold medals

Deng Yaping is yet another Chinese super player who won the hearts of table tennis lovers soon after her success at the international championships. She has won eighteen world championship medals, including four Olympic titles between 1989 and 1997.

Deng Yaping started her playing career at age five and earned the Provincial Junior Championship after four years of practice. She won her first prestigious national championship medal at the age of 13.

Yaping was denied a spot on the national team because of her height but finally got in in 1988. In 1991 she won her first singles event at the World Table Tennis Championships to prove she was worthy of a spot on the team.

Later in 1992, she became a gold medalist in both the doubles and singles events at the Olympics held in Spain. Deng Yiping took her retirement at the young age of 24. By this time she had already won more titles than any player. She retained the title of #1 ranked female player for eight years from 1990.

She was voted the best Chinese female athlete of the century and in 2003 she joined the International Table Tennis Federation Hall of Fame. As such, she is surely up there as one of the best ping pong players ever.

#5 Zhang Yining

  • Nationality: Chinese
  • Playing style: Right-handed, shakehand grip
  • Born: October 5th, 1981
  • Olympic Games: 4 gold medals

Long considered one of the greatest female table tennis players of all time, Zhang Yining was extremely dominant during the height of her playing career. She held rank number 1 in the world for a staggering 6 years from 2003 to 2009, only losing the position for a period of 2 months in 2008.

Nicknamed the “The Yellow Beast,” she racked up a total of 18 gold medals at major events, and while she was not the first woman to win a Grand Slam, she was the first to become a double Grand Slam winner. In fact, to date, no other female player has been able to match this feat.

To make her career even more remarkable, she went out on top, announcing her retirement in 2011, during which time she still held the Olympic and World title. Truly incredible.

#6 Zhang Jike

ping pong best players
Flickr (XIAOYU TANG) under CC BY-SA 2.0 – Original
  • Nationality: Chinese
  • Playing style: Right-handed, shakehand grip
  • Born: February 16th, 1988
  • Olympic Games: 3 golds and 1 silver medal

Zhang Jike is the fourth male player in table tennis history to achieve a Grand Slam after winning his gold in the men’s singles at the London 2012 Olympics. He won his Grand Slam in just 445 days which is very fast compared to other players. Later in 2013 and 2014, he won the WTTC and World Cup, placing him in good stead to win his second Grand Slam, although it was not to be.

He is a right-handed two-winged attacker; with his dynamic attacks and aggressive style, he puts his opponents on the defensive irrespective of which flank he plays. While Zhang Jike is one of the top ping pong players ever, his career has not been exactly what we would call smooth. Both his attitude and injury record prevented him from reaching his full potential.

Read More: Table Tennis Tips

#7 Ding Ning

ping pong best players
Flickr (XIAOYU TANG) under CC BY-SA 2.0 – Original
  • Nationality: Chinese
  • Playing Style: Left-handed, shakehand grip
  • Born: June 20th, 1990
  • Olympic Games: 3 golds and 1 silver medal

Born on June 20th, 1990, Ding Ning is one of the best female table tennis players.

She first became World Champion in 2011 at the Rotterdam World Table Tennis Championships. Afterward, in 2015, she would win her second World Title in women’s singles. She would later become a 3x World Champion in 2017 in Dusseldorf, where she also won gold in the doubles, making it a particularly successful event for her.

Ding Ning also won a shining gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the competitive women’s singles. She even secured gold in the team event at the previous 2012 Summer Olympics for the singles. However, she fell narrowly short, winning silver instead.

Ding Ning is currently retired and studying at Peking University for her Master’s Degree in Physical Education.

#8 Jan-Ove Waldner

ping pong best players
Flickr (Kanjitard) under CC BY-SA 2.0 – Original
  • Nationality: Swedish
  • Playing style: Right-handed, shakehand grip
  • Born: October 3rd, 1965 
  • Olympic Games: 1 gold and 1 silver medal

Born on October 3rd, 1965, Jan-Ove Waldner is one of the most popular and successful non-Chinese Ping Pong players ever. Coaches recognized his excellent athletic potential at a very early stage, and with support, he reached the finals of the European Championship in 1982 at the age of 16 years. During Waldner’s peak performance in the 1990s, he was more popular than Bill Clinton in China.

His most recent achievement was his 9th Swedish title against an undersized opponent born when Waldner won the first Swedish Championship. Because of his long career, he earned the nickname “Evergreen Tree” among the Chinese population.

Waldner is one of the seven players who have shown their talent and played since the officials made table tennis an Olympic sport.

Apart from his excellent results in the Olympic games, he is a 3 times gold medalist in the European Championship in the singles, doubles, and team competitions. Calling him the living legend of table tennis wouldn’t be an overstatement for sure.

#9 Wang Hao

ping pong best players
Wikimedia (Pierre-Yves Beaudoin) under CC BY-SA 4.0 – Original
  • Nationality: Chinese
  • Playing Style: Right-handed, Chinese penhold grip
  • Born: December 15th, 1990
  • Olympic Games: 2 gold and 3 silver medals

Wang Hao is a highly accomplished player who narrowly missed a Grand Slam. He secured singles gold medals at the World Cup and World Championships but failed to secure that vital gold at the Olympic Games, instead claiming three silvers.

Despite this shortcoming, Wang Hao held a table tennis world ranking of #1 globally for a staggering 27 consecutive months from 2007 to 2009. Later in 2011, he would once again reclaim the top spot.

What’s so interesting about Wang Hao’s game is that he was one of the early adopters of the reverse penhold backhand grip, alongside Ma Lin and Liu Guoliang. This meant he used both sides of his paddle, unlike the conventional penhold style. Although some were skeptical of this new wave of playing, Wang Hao showed how powerful the grip could be.

#10 Fan Zhendong

ping pong best players
Flickr (XIAOYU TANG) under CC BY-SA 2.0 – Original
  • Nationality: Chinese
  • Playing Style: Right-handed, shakehand grip
  • Born: January 22nd, 1997
  • Olympic Games: 1 gold and 1 silver medal

Now we come to the current world number 1! While it may seem unfair to place Fan Zhendong so highly, he has achieved many incredible feats from an early age. Shortly after joining the Chinese National Team in 2012, he became both the youngest ITTF World Tour Champion and the youngest World Table Tennis Champion.

It took him over a year to break into the top 10, and after holding the second spot for 29 consecutive months, he finally claimed the top spot. And there he now sits since April 2020. And there’s no sign of him losing his spot since he is miles ahead of the competition in terms of ranking points (7700 vs second place at 4550).

What’s even more remarkable is that Fan is just 25 years old. He has so much more time to claim titles and records. It shouldn’t be long before he receives his first grand slam.

#11 Xu Xin

ping pong best players
Flickr (XIAOYU TANG) under CC BY-SA 2.0 – Original
  • Nationality: Chinese
  • Playing Style: Left-handed, Chinese penhold grip
  • Born: January 8th, 1990
  • Olympic Games: 2 golds and 1 silver medal

Xu Xin is one of the few modern-day penholders of China — most made the switch to the shakehand grip, but not Xu Xin. His style is characterized by an aggressive attack on the forehand side. He has excellent movement and is undoubtedly one of the strongest forehand attackers. However, by employing the reverse penhold backhand grip, he also has good offense on his backhand as well.

Nicknamed “The Cloudwalker” and “XUperman,” Xu Xin has become well known for his unmatched ability to return near-impossible shots. He is very comfortable away from the table and is one of the few penholders with very high-level lobbing ability.

While Xu Xin has 19 major titles to his name, he is somewhat lacking when it comes to singles titles. He holds just one major gold medal across the Olympics, World Championships, and World Cup. This came in 2013 when he beat fellow countryman Yang An 4:0 in the final.

#12 Wang Liqin

ping pong best players
Wikimedia (Pierre-Yves Beaudouin) under CC BY-SA 3.0 – Original
  • Nationality: Chinese
  • Playing style: Right-handed, shakehand grip
  • Born: June 18th, 1978
  • Olympic Games: 2 gold and 2 bronze medals

Wang Liqin is a retired professional ping pong player who held an ITTF ranking of #1 for 25 consecutive months — the second-longest streak as of January 2011. Wang Liqin started his table tennis career at the age of 6, and the Chinese men’s squad picked him up in 1993.

He holds three singles gold medals in the World Championships and has a collection of 8 further golds in the doubles, mixed doubles, and team events. His name proudly shines in the ITTF hall of fame, and he currently acts as a coach for the Shanghai team in the Chinese Super League.

#13 Ichiro Ogimura

ping pong best players
Wikimedia (unknown author) under CC BY-SA 3.0 NL – Original
  • Nationality: Japanese
  • Playing style: Right-handed, Chinese penhold grip
  • Born: June 25th, 1932
  • Olympic Games: None

While Ichiro Ogimura is one of the few non-Chinese players on this list, he is still relatively unknown. This is because his era was way before the others — most of the footage available of him playing is in black and white!

Ogimura experienced widespread success on the international stage claiming 12 World Championships and a further 8 gold medals at the Asian Games and Asian Championships. Unfortunately, Ogimura couldn’t acquire any World Cup or Olympic Games Titles as they did not exist until 1980 and 1988, respectively.

Besides competitive success, Ogimura is also credited as a key player in the ping pong diplomacy movement: a time when table tennis was used to soothe relations between the United States and China.

#14 Li Xiaoxia

ping pong best players
Flickr (XIAOYU TANG) under CC BY-SA 2.0 – Original
  • Nationality: Chinese
  • Playing style: Right-handed, shakehand grip
  • Born: June 16th, 1988
  • Olympic Games: 3 golds and 1 silver medal

Li Xiaoxia is one of the most accomplished female table tennis players of all time. She secured her Grand Slam title in 2013 when she won beat Liu Shiwen at the Paris World Championships.

In terms of accomplishments, she is marginally behind Ding Ning. She holds 19 major world titles as opposed to Ding Ning’s 21. And also, she slightly loses out in their head-to-head record, winning on 15 occasions and losing on 17.

#15 Qiao Hong

  • Nationality: Chinese
  • Playing style: Right-handed, shakehand grip
  • Born: November 21st, 1968
  • Olympic Games: 2 golds, 1 silver, and 1 bronze medal

Qiao Hong is a former Chinese ping pong player. She has won four Olympic medals, two of which are gold. She has also won a total of 10 World Championship medals in her table tennis career.

She was ranked #2 by the International Table Tennis Federation for a long time during her peak years.

Qiao Hong joined the women’s table tennis ITTF hall of fame in 2005. Qiao Hong is now the women’s national team coach and an active member of the Chinese Olympic Committee.

#16 Guo Yue

ping pong best players
Wikimedia (Pierre-Yves Beaudouin) under CC BY-SA 4.0 – Original
  • Nationality: Chinese
  • Playing Style: Left-handed, shakehand grip
  • Born: July 17th, 1988
  • Olympic Games: 2 golds and 2 bronze medals

Guo Yue is an unbelievably talented female player whose left-handed shakehand attack is very well-known in the table tennis industry. In the 2006 Asian Games at Doha, she took first place in the women’s singles, doubles, and team events. Later in 2007, from January to July, she attended six International Opens and won four gold medals for her excellent play.

Guo Yue also won the 2007 World Championship held in Zagreb, Croatia. After her London 2012 Olympics performance, she was switched to a provincial team. Shortly thereafter, she took a detour from her sports career and studied finance at Tsinghua University.

#17 Kong Linghui

ping pong best players
Flickr (XIAOYU TANG) under CC BY-SA 2.0 – Original
  • Nationality: Chinese
  • Playing Style: Right-handed, shakehand grip
  • Born: October 18th, 1975
  • Olympic Games: 2 golds and 1 silver medal

Kong Linghui is another one of the most successful Chinese table tennis players of all time. He earned his Grand Slam title in 2000 when he claimed gold at the Sydney Olympics, making him the fifth player ever to win a Grand Slam. He also experienced a lot of success in doubles events teaming up with the likes of Liu Guoliang.

In total, he claimed 5 doubles titles at the Olympics and World Championships between 1996 and 2005. And after a long and successful career, he took up the respected position as Head Coach of the National Chinese Women’s Team

Unfortunately, Kong Linghui experienced gambling issues which came to light in 2017. Following a lawsuit as a result of his inability to repay a $1 million debt, his post as head coach was suspended.

#18 Liu Guoliang

ping pong best players
Flickr (XIAOYU TANG) under CC BY-SA 2.0 – Original
  • Nationality: Chinese
  • Playing style: Right-handed, Chinese penhold grip
  • Born: January 10th, 1976
  • Olympic Games: 2 golds, 1 silver, and 1 bronze medal

Liu Guoliang is yet another retired Chinese table tennis player who has won all the major world tournaments, including the World Cup, World Championship, and the Olympics. He is the second male to achieve a career Grand Slam winning singles events in the Olympics, World Cup, and World Championships. With his impressive serving style and penhold grip, he is a top-rated tennis player of all time.

Because of his impressive accomplishments, on December 1st, 2018, he was elected as the president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association.

Read More: Best Table Tennis Servers

FAQs

Who Is the Best Table Tennis Player?

Ma Long is the best table tennis player in the world. He’s the only player to win 2 Grand Slams and the only player to claim 5 Olympic Gold medals.

Who Is the Best American Ping Pong Player?

Danny Seemiller and Lily Zhang are probably the two best American players of all time. Now retired, Danny won five United States Men’s Single Championships and peaked at rank 19 in the world.

On the other hand, Lily also has five United States Singles Championship wins. She’s currently at her highest rank of 25 globally, so she may well exceed Danny Seemiller in time.

Where Are the Best Ping Pong Players From?

If you haven’t figured it out by now, the answer is clear: China. In fact, China is so dominant that no other country comes remotely close; it’s essentially China vs the rest of the world. Only two players on this list were from other countries (Sweden and Japan).

And to many, it may come as a surprise that Timo Boll didn’t make the cut. As much as I wanted to feature him, Timo Boll simply doesn’t have the accolades that the top players possess.

Closing Thoughts

What a list! We hope you found it entertaining. While I expected Ma Long to be the best table tennis player of all time, I was surprised by how many other players have similar accolades. Wang Nan, in particular, has similar major event wins to Ma and is no doubt the greatest female table tennis player of all time.

I recommend you check out some of these players on YouTube. It’s interesting to see how styles have changed over the years. While all 18 of these individuals are the best ping pong players, they all play quite differently.

Eugene (Gene) Sandoval has been one of those guys who spent too many hours around ping pong tables in high school. However, soon enough, Gene understood that there is more to ping pong than having fun. That is how he started a journey that made Eugene one of the experienced semi-professional ping pong players in the United States. As the founder of the PingPongRuler, Eugene spends most of his time surrounded by ping pong tables and research. He always has this knack for coming up with new ping pong strategies and telling the good and bad equipment apart.