Liu Guoliang on whos better: Jan Ove Waldner or Ma Long!

Last weekend saw Ma Long claim gold at the 2019 World Championships. This is the third World Championship title Ma Long has secured in his career, bringing up the question among many fans, does this make Ma Long the greatest table tennis player of all time? Well one person had their say, Liu Guoliang!

Liu Guoliang and Ma Long (Photo by ITTF Flickr)

USA's Kanak Jha just finished a practice session with Ma Long on the 19th April and asked the question to Liu Guoliang, "who would win between Jan Ove Waldner and Ma Long when both players are at their peak with the celluloid ball?" Liu responded, I think Jan Ove Waldner would have won. However with the plastic ball Ma Long would win".

There we have it guys, does this settle the dust? Both Ma Long and Jan Ove Waldner were absolute monsters in their generation. One has to argue, if Ma Long wins the Tokyo Olympics next year will this make him the ultimate greatest table tennis player of all time?

Watch Ma Long vs Mattias Falck in the final of the 2019 World Championships:

Let us know in the comments who's the greatest table tennis player of all time.

TableTennisDaily

 

[bigg boss]

with normal logic, I suggest one should just call - greatest of current generation

because you can't compare generations equally and fairly

Zeio might just come here and quote that Walder was just a protype for shake hand players

How do you compare them with future gens?

 

[pingpongpaddy]

I don't really think the GOAT discussion is ever a completely satisfactory method of ranking the best in the history of the game.
While its clear that Ma Long probably deserves to be called the most technically complete TT match winner in the game so far, there are other players with special qualities:-

Ryu Seung Min's comet like performance to win the Olympic gold was something very special.
Yoo nam kyu's performance in Barcelona I think was also something very special
Waldner's career has been wonderful, but what I really treasure about him was his X factor - a special unique genius and vision for the game.

 

[fais]

with normal logic, I suggest one should just call - greatest of current generation

because you can't compare generations equally and fairly

Zeio might just come here and quote that Walder was just a protype for shake hand players

Theoretically you can. Not only that, you can also compare sportsman from different sports to find out the real GOAT. Which incidently, happens to be cricketeer Don Bradman. For a baseball batter to be as good as Bradman, the player would need to hava a career batting average of .392. For a basketball player to be as good as Bradman in basketball, the player would need to scoare an average of 43 points a game.



By measuring the (statistical) standard deviation of ML and JOW (and others), you can actually determine the real GOAT in tt.

 

[Tinykin]

Theoretically you can. Not only that, you can also compare sportsman from different sports to find out the real GOAT. Which incidently, happens to be cricketeer Don Bradman. For a baseball batter to be as good as Bradman, the player would need to hava a career batting average of .392. For a basketball player to be as good as Bradman in basketball, the player would need to scoare an average of 43 points a game.



By measuring the (statistical) standard deviation of ML and JOW (and others), you can actually determine the real GOAT in tt.

Bradman was a very good batsman, almost as good as the great George Headley.

 

[pingpongpaddy]

Bradman was a very good batsman, almost as good as the great George Headley.

yes Bradman is a great call as being far ahead in his sport
@fais
the only comparable figure I can think of was Hashim Khan the squash legend. when the English Open was the "Wimbledon" of squash he won 7 times, the first one being at age 35!! He reached this standard of play without ever leaving his country until he went to compete in the English Open