Best player for each ball era?

[TensorBackhand]

Which player was the best for each ball? If I'm not mistaken, I believe there have been 3 balls: The 38mm ball, the 40mm ball, and the latest 40mm plastic ball.

My general understanding is that the 38mm ball was fast and spinny, therefore it was harder to have consistent rallies. Strategic players like Waldner, Liu Guoliang, Kong Linghui excelled under this ball.

The 40mm ball made the game much slower, and favored powerful attacking players. Wang Liqin and Zhang Jike excelled in this era.

The plastic ball reduced the spin greatly and allowed for more creativity, more flicks, more versatility in attack. Ma Long and FZD excelled during this era.

Do you agree or am I misunderstanding something?

 

[Tinykin]

Here we go again

 

[SofaChamp]

Is Boll the only player to be world class with all 3 balls? Maybe along with Samsonov?

 

[Der_Echte]

TB,The Goon Squad might get you evicted from SD for not mentioning Stellan (World Champion with inverted and damn world class with short pips or coached world champions) or that pile of fake national H3 in front of Balboa Park TTC...

 

[Der_Echte]

The Austrian secret TT police might be offended by TB omitting Werner Schlager, the last dude to win a world championship in TT who does not sport a Chinese last name...

 

[Der_Echte]

S-Jan might get offended for TB omitting all the Long Pips Champions before a notorious Reverend singlehandedly got ITTF to ban certain pips aspect ratio....

 

[Jackcerry_]

Ma Long the best of 40 and 40+ era