My favorite players are usually the ones I try to emulate. I feel it's good for mental reps to see players with strokes you're trying to copy. Thus, I'm trying not to watch so much of say just the CNT as much anymore because it's almost like a different sport from what I play. They're duel inverted, flip every serve no matter what. etc. I just can't do that.
So in no particular order:
- He Zhi Wen (for his style & SP mastery)
- Wang Jian Jiang (for his trickyness)
- Wang Qiu Yi (for her ability to attack with LPs)
IIRC, she was world champ when i played regularly ages ago... along with Guo Yuehua.
EDIT: I like watching Jiang Jialiang, Liu Guoliang, Ma Lin, and Wang Hao play, but my favorite is probably Guo Yuehua ... although I don't play anything like him. I have a soft spot for He Zhimen, although i don't play exactly like him, but a lot of aspects of my oldschool play is similar to his style.
Timo Boll has always been my idol. When the coach taught me the technique I always thought Boll has the cleanest text book technique of them all. He made the world team championships so exciting to watch for me, I always thought "ok if Timo has a really good day maybe this time we can get them!"
I love Ma Long too, he is a big role model in terms of following your dreams and working hard, he struggled so much some years ago. He reached top 10 of the world when he was like 18 but it took him 7 more years to make his big dream come true, he never gave up. I was so happy when he lifted that trophy
Right now I am expecting a lot from Calderano, his power makes a lot of opponents struggle, maybe even the chinese in the future
Current Players : Zhang Jike (when he is fit and its been quite a long time ) , Fan Zhendong , Samsonov, Jeong Youngsik
Past Players : WLQ, Ma Lin , Waldner , He Zhiwen, Schlager, Maze,
In the past I used to adore Ma Lin with his superaggressive style: one shot, one kill. I wonder why nobody mentioned Xu Xin yet, as he IMHO is one of the best showmen on the court ever, both style-wise and attitude-wise. I also like heavily BH-oriented players like Jeoung Youngsik and Ovtcharov, as I like to play a lot of backhands myself, especially over the table when possible.
My favourite is Ma Lin...
Why?
He is a good player, he is a fricken penhold god, because most players use shakehand. I am using penhold, but am switching to shakehand for more techniques, as more tutorials and such use shakehand. Also, I rooted for him before too.