Who is better ? Wang Liqin, Ma Lin and Wang Hao..

I've always been for Ma Lin, propably because of his great sense of humor, great variation of shots and rotations and great table tennis overall, so...

Tommy Lee said:

Hey guy, I think you confuse the Chinese National Tabletennis Championships and the China National Games, there is no Chinese National Tabletennis Championships in 2009 (also 2005 and 2013), because 2009 is the China National Games year

Actually, Wang Hao won the TT champion title in 2009 China National Games (11th), Ma Long was runner and Wang Liqin was 3rd place

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Oops....sorry to mis-correct you
Can you explain the difference between the National Championships and the National Games? I assume that the National Games are more prestigious as they are held once every 4 years, but other than that I don't think I really understand the difference.

It's hard to say, personally it's between Wang Liqin and Ma Lin for me. As far as I know Ma Lin is one of the highest earning, if not THE highest earning players in the sport over the length of his career.

I guess it depends how you weight the value of Olympics/WTTC/WC as WLC has more WTTC, Ma Lin has more WC and Wang Hao has a balance. I guess I'd have to say Wang Liqin, 3 world champs is pretty impressive and he had a great pro tour and WR1 record for a long period of time.

i think that wang liqin is the best out of the three of them, with ma lin second and wang hao third.
this is because, wang liqin won the worlds 3 times. that is a massive achievement. also, someone wrote on a vid on youtube that going back to 2001, wang liqin has either won it or lost to the eventual winner. that is an incredible stat.
ma lin is second because he won olympic gold in singles AND doubles. and reached the wttc final 3 times, plus the multiple world cups.
wang hao is third in my view because he has won the worlds only once, with no doubles titles at the worlds (i think?) , plus the 3 olympic silvers...the fact that he hasnt won an olympic gold is what puts him 3rd in my book. yes, ma lin lost the worlds 3 times, but 3 olympic silver medals for wang hao shows to me that there is clearly something missing...

thats my view. obviously there will be people who agree and disagree but that is what i think

Super Chopper said:

i think that wang liqin is the best out of the three of them, with ma lin second and wang hao third.
this is because, wang liqin won the worlds 3 times. that is a massive achievement. also, someone wrote on a vid on youtube that going back to 2001, wang liqin has either won it or lost to the eventual winner. that is an incredible stat.
ma lin is second because he won olympic gold in singles AND doubles. and reached the wttc final 3 times, plus the multiple world cups.
wang hao is third in my view because he has won the worlds only once, with no doubles titles at the worlds (i think?) , plus the 3 olympic silvers...the fact that he hasnt won an olympic gold is what puts him 3rd in my book. yes, ma lin lost the worlds 3 times, but 3 olympic silver medals for wang hao shows to me that there is clearly something missing...

thats my view. obviously there will be people who agree and disagree but that is what i think

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So 3 runner-up finishes for Wang Hao shows you that there is something missing, but 3 runner-up finishes for Ma Lin is an asset?

Trismegistus said:

So 3 runner-up finishes for Wang Hao shows you that there is something missing, but 3 runner-up finishes for Ma Lin is an asset?

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the fact that it was in the olympics is what is telling me something is missing...
i dont think ma lin had anything "missing" in his wttc losses, he was beaten fair and square by liu and wang x2..
the loss in zagreb was a bad one, but you have to gie credit to wang for his comeback..
but wang hao's 3 olympic runner ups is what makes me put him 3rd...plus, he only has 1 title at a wttc, and ma lin has won olympic singles and doubles gold, plus wlq has won the worlds 3 times and has an olympic bronze in singles...so i think wang hao is 3rd in this one.
like i say, people will either agree or disagree, i know i haent worded it very well but have tried my best.

They are all great in my view. Perhaps Wang Liqin has a greater fighting spirit against the other two. Wang Hao was unfortunate in the olympics 2004 facing RSM in the form of his life. Some conspiracy theory lovers say that head coach liu guoliang set up the semi final because WH had much better results against RSM comparing to WLQ. Its a logical assumption, except to the fact that WH was not ready for a final and without any experience of big tournaments (RSM was worse yes but with more experience in big tours than WH).The chinese team also didnt expect Ma Lin to lose so early (facing waldner) he was also in top form back then

Winning world titles has a major psychological impact in a player's self confidence, WH was unfairly labeled as a "loser" from the chinese after 2004.

Eventually, it all comes down to consistency. WH was and is far better when facing foreign opponents but inside China he has lost from players much lower than him. Ma Lin and WLQ have both suffered defeats from "lower" ranked opponents outside china, but in crucial games either singles or team they are both better in handling the pressure compared to WH

And some corrections to previous posts : WLQ has two not one olympic bronze medals 2004 & 2008.

WH has won two doubles world championships (2005 with kong linghui and 2009 with chen qi)

overall I think WLQ is a bit better but not "greater" player than the other two

As a Ma Lin fan myself, I would still give my vote to WLQ. 3 WC singles titles cannot be ignored.

I have to go with the guy, who, when he was dominant, he was an unbeatable force. Ranked #1 for 25 months straight and another stretch for 21 or 22 months straight. There was a period between 2000 and 2006 where he was ranked #1 for almost the whole time. Nobody can really match that and 3 world championship titles in singles.

WANG LIQIN.

He is a mere shadow of his former self and he is still in the top 10.

UpSideDownCarl said:

I have to go with the guy, who, when he was dominant, he was an unbeatable force. Ranked #1 for 25 months straight and another stretch for 21 or 22 months straight. There was a period between 2000 and 2006 where he was ranked #1 for almost the whole time. Nobody can really match that and 3 world championship titles in singles.

WANG LIQIN.

He is a mere shadow of his former self and he is still in the top 10.

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I'm curious, in what way is Wang Liqin worse now than he was back then? He still seems to be in incredible shape.

Idiot said:

I'm curious, in what way is Wang Liqin worse now than he was back then? He still seems to be in incredible shape.

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He went an entire year without losing a set. Not a match, not one game in one match. Crazy. Nobody could beat him. He was so good that there were people who would get board, knowing beforehand who would win any given tournament.

UpSideDownCarl said:

He went an entire year without losing a set. Not a match, not one game in one match. Crazy. Nobody could beat him. He was so good that there were people who would get board, knowing beforehand who would win any given tournament.

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That is indeed impressive. Could it be that the younger players of this generation are just better than he was in his prime, and he just couldn't adjust after the speed glue era? I bet his backhand is better now than it was back then.

Idiot said:

That is indeed impressive. Could it be that the younger players of this generation are just better than he was in his prime, and he just couldn't adjust after the speed glue era? I bet his backhand is better now than it was back then.

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I think his backhand is better than it was back then. I think there were a lot of great players including Ma Lin back then too. I think, while his backhand is better and even his technique might be better, his forehand is no longer powerful enough to overwhelm his opponents. You cannot judge a player from the past on players from now. But a player in his late 30s is no longer in his prime and has lost something and the young guys coming up have an edge in speed and power and the older guys have the wisdom and experience.

And it is worth remembering, Ma Lin was there when Wang Liqin was on top. Ma Lin may have won some World Championships and some more singles titles if Wang Liqin was not in his way.

Waldner is a shadow of his former playing self. He is out of shape, he cannot move very well, and he is definitely not TRAINING the way the active pros are, yet, every so often he comes back to play a match and still gives the top guys trouble. I think the competition back then may have been just as strong. It just was not all from China.

And I do think you have a very good point that Wang Liqin was never able to fully adjust to not using speed glue. And he even won a tournament in 2010 or 2011 where he killed everyone and they took the title away because they tested his racket after and found he had used speed glue. Without speed glue his forehand lost its edge.

UpSideDownCarl said:

He [ Wang Liqin ] went an entire year without losing a set. Not a match, not one game in one match. Crazy. Nobody could beat him. He was so good that there were people who would get board, knowing beforehand who would win any given tournament.

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what ! it's just amazing ! Wang Liqin is best

UpSideDownCarl said:

He went an entire year without losing a set. Not a match, not one game in one match. Crazy. Nobody could beat him. He was so good that there were people who would get board, knowing beforehand who would win any given tournament.

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That is quite impressive.

You know what year that was?

ulrich said:

That is quite impressive.

You know what year that was?

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I believe it was between October of 2000 and October of 2001. It was in the middle of his 25 consecutive months at the #1 ranked spot. And I believe that the first match he lost was one of the first matches where they used the 11 point scoring system. I cannot really remember though. It was right in between 2 World Cup tournaments.