Who do you think is greater than Waldner?

I personally believe Wang Liqin is the best player of all time. His level of dominance for much of a decade was unmatched. And he achieved that dominance at a time where I think table tennis was starting to reach a level that just really surpassed what it had been in the past. While technically I can't be sure, since I wasn't old enough to watch what occurred like 80s or 70s, it seems like China's dominance only really reached its peak in the generation after Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui, I mean those two players are legends, but they never had the stranglehold on the number 1 rank as the Chinese team did once Wang Liqin and Ma Lin became the preeminent players for the Chinese team, and despite that dominance, Wang Liqin, still was able to stand out head and shoulders above even the rest of the Chinese team. He and Ma Lin for a period of 3-4 went to just about every pro tour finals, with Wang Liqin winning the overwhelming number of them.

Waldner is an amazing player, and his longevity is incredible, but I feel like his competition throughout most of his career just wasn't to the level of what WLQ faced, and what it is now.

Waldner is the greatest player ever and forever!

agree with scylla mostly. perhaps Wang Li Qin comes second to the chart. IMO he's more of brutal force player, Waldner in the other hand plays with wits, and quite playful player may I add. Wang Li Qin style resembles a robot; Waldner resembles a fox.

Am I making any sense ?

i dont know... waldner has a lot of mental control... and he knows how to control his opponent... but wang was also very great...

Wang Liqin has achieved a little bit more in my humble opinion than Waldner. Jan Ove was tt virtuoso, Wang was more robotical but has won more medals at World Championships.

does ittf have medals tally for each player?

i like Wang Liqin but i think Waldner is better...

waldner "EVERGREEN"

i think ma long will become the best player of all time

It has to be based on actual accomplishments, not because you think someone has a cool style.

Therefore I think you could make a strong case for WLQ as being at least the equal of JOW and arguably greater since he won three world championships and had not one but two continuous stretches of more than 24 months where he was ranked number one in the world. That later statistic is incredible, Waldner did not accomplish that, and maybe some of the younger posters have forgotten that WLQ was almost completely unbeatable in his prime. JOW was great in big events but would lose a lot to lesser players if he wasn't motivated, and he was often unmotivated in ordinary ITTF events. JOW was really fun to watch. On the other hand, WLQ really revolutionized power technique. That Chinese forehand people talk about a lot more or less started with him.

Nobody else should be in the discussion.

Ma Long has not yet won one of the big three tournaments. He will not be number 1 in the world next month. He is not on track towards equaling the records of either JOW or WLQ, or for that matter, Wang Hao. Or Kong Linghui or Liu Guoliang. Or Ma Lin, the greatest #2 player in the history of the sport.

vader said:

does ittf have medals tally for each player?

i like Wang Liqin but i think Waldner is better...

Click to expand...

I don't actually have numbers on that, but Waldner was not always dominant in ordinary ITTF events. WLQ was. That's were my statistic on consecutive months ranked #1 comes in. WLQ had two stretches of more than two years each in which he was ranked #1 in the world continuously. They were separated by one month were Ma Lin supplanted WLQ.

On the other hand, one other thing ought to be considered. Waldner's contemporaries included a much much stronger contingent of European players than we have now. IN waldner's long career he had to deal with players like Gatien, Persson, and Schlager (all world champions) as well as Primoracs, Saive, Korbel, young Samsonov, to name just a few. Also Kim Take Soo. He also had to play against three generations of great Chinese.

My personal top 3 of the best TT players in history:
1)Waldner
2)Kong
3)Liqin
My favourite player now is Ma Long

You need a Ma Long tribute
I would watch it every day two times

It is difficult to define "greater" and "best".
Waldner is definitely the "evergreen", staying competitive for a long time. His playing style, skill, and tactics also enabled him to play different generations of players.
Wang Liqin also has the discipline and physical condition to play for a long time. This guy is fit physically and mentally! But Chinese TT is so internally competitive nowadays. If WLQ were to represent another country, we would definitely see him around much longer.

waldner is a reincarnation of god

ma lin for me

Yeah I would have to agree with Shaolin TT, I mean everyone goes on about Waldner being the evergreen tree, but in reality, most of the Chinese players would be able to do the same thing, except because China always gets an insane amount of new young talent, they don't need to do that. I mean look at Wang Liqin, for the past decade he has stayed in the same insane shape. He is now 30+ but has the same exact body as he did when he was 20. I watched this video where the Chinese players were training, and he still out performs most of the younger Chinese players in terms of physical fitness. Yeah he isn't playing as much anymore since they have younger players to represent the team, but when he does play, there still isn't really any non-Chinese player that beats him with anything close to a 50% win rate.

With his dedication to keeping in tip top shape, if he was to represent another country, he would still probably be beating non-Chinese players for at least another 5 years.
I also wouldn't really describe WLQ's style as really robotic, yeah he does everything really well and correctly, but he also does a lot of different flips and shots with placement that other players don't expect. And the fact that as the match progresses he gets progressively better and better, which shows that he is continuously thinking during the course of a match, continuously adapting his playstyle as needed, and that just doesn't sound robotic to me.