WHO IS THE GREATEST PLAYER EVER?

Alan Dickinson gives you his opinion!

ho is or was the World’s greatest ever player? A question often asked among Table Tennis enthusiasts. Alan Dickinson takes a look at the last eighty or so years and gives his personal opinions.It is almost impossible to compare great players from a different era, but with our sport we can safely split it into two categories, the old type of game and the modern version.

The Hard Bat (1900-1960)

irst the dominance of the hard bat game that stood strong, almost until 1960. But since then the sponge bat and all that comes with it i.e.: loop, anti-loop, long pimples, fast glue, reversed rubber and hidden magic serves has taken over for the last forty years.

     Table Tennis became popular at the turn of the twentieth century with the introduction of the celluloid ball. However, it was not until 1926 that the first World Championship’s were staged in London. Hungary had the proud honour of having the first champion in the shape of Roland Jacobi. England secured its first winner with Fred Perry in 1929, who went on to become Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Champion and a household name in the process. Our only other English born winner emerged 20 years later, the consistent all rounder Johnny Leach, who took the title in 1949 and regained it in 1951.Leach was also a member of England’s only ever World Team Championship winning team in 1953, which also included Leeds player Brian Kennedy.

     Following the success of Perry, Hungarian Victor Barna was to become the sports first superstar. Born in Budapest in 1911 he dominated the game in the early thirties.  His famous backhand flick shot helped him to contest six world consecutive World finals from 1930 to 1935, winning five of them, his only loss being to fellow countryman Szabados, with whom Barna won seven Men’s Doubles titles.

     The next superstar was just around the corner. Austrian Richard Bergmann, born in Vienna in 1919 he would become famous for his impenetrable hard bat defence, uncanny ball control and a superb mental tenacity. He was the first true tactician of the game who studied the strengths and weaknesses of his opponents. He could also attack on both wings and break up the rhythm of players. Other great players were also on the scene at that time, including the Czechoslovakian pair Vana and Andreadis. This duo had some titanic battles with Bergmann who won his first World title in 1937, beating Vana. The result was reversed a year later in 1938. Bergmann left Austria for the shores of Britain following Germanys invasion of his homeland. Whilst representing England he became champion again in 1939. The war years undoubtedly robbed him of further honours, but he returned to win the title on two more occasions. In 1948 he avenged his defeat ten years previously against Vana and beat the Hungarian Soos in 1950. Interestingly, Victor Barna’s eighth doubles success in 1939 was with non other than Richard Bergmann, when both players were representing England!

     The last World Champion using a hard bat was Ferenc Sido of Hungary in 1953. He also contested the 1959 final, losing to the first Chinese victor using a sponge bat, Jung Kuo-tuan.

Dennis Norburn who represented Yorkshire in his prime had the great honour of playing Richard Bergmann in his career and described his defence as simply awesome. Sadly Bergmann died of a brain tumour in 1969 at the age of 50 while Victor Barna passed away in Lima, Peru in 1972. They will both be remembered as great players of their time with exceptional sportsmanlike behaviour. They are true legends of the game. 

The Modern Sponge (1960-Present Day)

he fifties saw the advent of sponge coupled with pimpled out rubber and the emergence of the Japanese. Ogimura and Tanaka were both very athletic players, each of them winning the World Championship twice. But it was the early sixties that brought about two Chinese players who set the world alight with incredible hitting power, Chuang Tse-tung and Lifu-Jung.

     Since1957 the World Championships have been held every two years. While Chuang Tse-tung was successful in 1961, 63 and 65 it has long been suspected that the Chinese establishment decided the outcome of matches between their fellow countrymen. The same suspicions remain today.

By 1970 the majority of the leading players were using reversed rubber for maximum spin effect. To some extent this helped the Europeans redress the balance of power with their Asian counterparts. The strong two winged looping game proved successful for Stellan Bengtsson (Sweden) in 1971 and Istvan Jonyer (Hungary) in 1975. Kjell Johansson (Sweden) teamed up with Bengtsson to take the World Doubles title in 1973 and were instrumental in leading their nation to their first World Team title. Similarly in 1979 Jonyer was joined by Tibor Klampar and Gabor Gergely for Hungary’s 12^th Team title.

     It has to be said that the game went through a strange transition in the late seventies and early eighties. With the arrival of numerous different rubbers, including anti-loop and various pimples, players were disguising spin by using the same colour rubber on both sides of the blade and twiddling the bat. Foot stamping on service to eliminate the racket sound and shielding the ball on service were commonplace. Some strange results occurred. England’s John Hilton won the 1980 European Championships and reached the dizzy heights of World No.5. John was without doubt a fine player but was helped enormously by his all black combination bat. However the mid-eighties saw an end to foot stamping and as we all know today, each side of the blade must be a different colour. It is worth noting that Chester Barnes, Dennis Neale and Desmond Douglas were prominent world-class players, representing England with pride and indeed no little success in the modern era.

The eighties once again provided us with two hard hitting Chinese penholders, both superstars of the game. Guo Yuehua and Jiang Jialiang. Guo appeared in four consecutive World Finals winning two of them in 1985 and 1987. Jiang had several brushes with the Chinese authorities and was somewhat left in the wilderness. Both men had lightning quick reactions and created venomous power, and yet in the same decade fellow countryman Liang-Geliang (who was a leading player in the seventies) was still attaining brilliant results with his classic all round game. Similarly Chen Xinhua (who later represented England) would extend this into the nineties with some breathtaking defensive skills.

     The final chapter was about to commence however, with the nation who had earlier given us Stellan Bengtsson. Sweden’s Jan Ove Waldner and Jorgen Persson were ready for the World stage. Since 1989 these two greats have been the nemesis behind their country’s four World Team titles. Persson is a terrific reader of spin serves, and this combined with a big backhand hit and controlled forehand gave him the ammunition to win both the World and the European Championships. Despite all his credentials I still cannot rate him as highly as Waldner. Unflappable Waldner is the most amazing of modern day players. He not only has a superb variation of services but also possesses fantastic control, to such an extent that he can consistently invite opponents to attack him and yet still dictate the rally through deception, incredible foresight and immense power. His retrieving game is a joy to watch and his versatility is unsurpassed. Waldner has appeared in four World finals, winning two in 1989 and 1997. He has competed in two Olympic finals, winning a Gold Medal in 1992 and recently winning a Silver in 2000. Waldner is also a World Cup winner and a European Champion.

     Recent times have seen two Chinese players emulate Waldner’s feat of World and Olympic Champion, Liu-Guliang, a traditional hard hitting penholder and the current World No.1 Kong-Lingui. Kong uses a western shake hands grip to loop on both wings, which is an ever-increasing style among the Chinese.

THE VERDICT!

n my judgement Richard Bergmman (hard bat era) and Jan Ove Waldner (modern era) win the vote. It will be a long time before a modern day player carries the same respect and admiration from his fellow professionals as Waldner.