It's Time to Recognize that Ma Long is the Greatest Table Tennis Player of All Time

[Updated 1/5/2019] I'm never too far from controversy, but this is a topic that has come up time and time again over the past decade now. The age old battle of whether Ma Long or Jan-Ove Waldner should be considered the greatest table tennis player in history. For many years I was staunchly in Waldner's corner, but I believe the tides have changed, and there is finally plenty enough evidence to support the valid opinion that Ma Long is the king pin in the history of table tennis. Before you set your laptop on fire and never look at my blog again, remember this is a discussion topic, so please read my thoughts first and then feel free to comment with your own.

Ma Long the greatest of all time?
photo courtesy of ITTF.com

Many people say the two cannot be compared, Waldner and Ma, different eras, different equipment, different rules. When you think of what qualifies a player to be the greatest of all time, you should simply be able to look at their performance and achievements within their generation of competing. I don't believe that comparing the two means we have to guess who would win between the two if they were both in their prime, that is one of the main reasons why there is so much debate when it comes to the classic 'who was/is better' question.

So let's observe how my own thought process changed. Waldner was an artist, they didn't call him Mozart for no reason. He was a pioneer of creativity, touch and genius in table tennis. With his excellence he stood head and shoulders above the competition, the people loved him, the spectators loved him. He won a gold medal at the 1992 Olympic Games, a silver in Sydney in 2000, he won 2 World Championships - among his 16 total WTTC medals.

With Sweden he was World Team Champion 4 times and held off the might of China, much to the world's delight. In 1990 he won the World Cup, meaning his '92 Olympic Gold held him as a Grand Slam Champion, among the greats of the sport.

Waldner has often been compared to a God in the sport of table tennis, tribute videos are plentiful online, he is admired and even in retirement still celebrated, as a true champion of the sport.

So it's not hard to see why he was labelled the greatest player of all time, and he absolutely was in his era and for a long, long time after it. This part there is no dispute about, Waldner was the greatest, and in many people's opinions (and I make no point to disagree with them) he still is.

Now let's examine the career of Ma Long, often named The Dragon (as per his Chinese name, Long). The early breakout of Ma Long was most definitely on the ITTF World Tour, during 2011 he was an unstoppable force, winning 5 Pro Tours in succession. Had he won a sixth (he lost to Zhang Jike in the Slovenia Open Final), he would have set a new record.

During this time the fans were split between Ma Long and Zhang Jike. As Ma reached World Number 1, his fans around the globe eagerly awaited his next trial. At this stage people began to ask, is Ma Long greater than Waldner, and at that point it was clear - with no major titles, the answer was a bold and loud - NO.

Ma had an opportunity to cement himself among the greats, but it wasn't until 2012 that he claimed his first Slam title - the 2012 World Cup in Liverpool. This gave fans some hope, as he had only landed bronze in both the 2009 and 2011 World Championships, both times losing to Wang Hao. 

It was no surprise that Ma didn't have an opportunity to play singles in 2012 Olympics, as Zhang Jike was already World Champion and Wang Hao was two time silver medalist. Another big opportunity would pass. At this point many were wondering if Zhang Jike would rise to become the best player in history instead of Ma.

Indeed in 2012 Zhang Jike became Olympic Champion and joined the ranked of the Grand Slam Champions, the first to hold all three major titles consecutively. He had set the bar. 

In 2013 Zhang won his second World Championships, Ma Long lost out to Wang Hao yet again. Would he ever be World Champion? It seemed that without World or Olympic titles to his name, his other top results were just not significant enough to make a big impact for his career legacy.

In those times the battles between the two were classics, most likely missed by many today. Zhang had the record with majors, but Ma Long was still arguably the best player in the world on individual results.

So let's get to the important stuff. 2015, Ma Long wins the World Table Tennis Championships, finally triumphing. The same year he wins his second World Cup gold. After many years, Ma Long seemed to have broken through the pressure of the big events and was delivering. His nemesis Wang Hao, who had stopped him in '09, '11 and '13 had retired, and he was a man in form.

Roll on 2016 and his big chance came. If he were to win the Olympic Games he would be crowned a Grand Slam Champion, if his teammate and rival Zhang Jike won, he would become the first player ever to claim a double Grand Slam.

It was a one-sided affair, Ma Long was dominant in the final and took gold. Zhang's career faded into the background as injury and contract issues with his Super League club in China reduced his ability to train or compete. Until recently he was absent from international events.

Ma Long had finally achieved his career dreams.

Now in 2019, Ma Long has won his third World Table Tennis Championships, joining only Zhuang Zedong and Viktor Barna as a player to win three or more consecutive World Championships. He also achieved this after becoming a father and returning from a long period of injury - overcoming a top heavy draw of his Chinese national teammates.

So let's iron out some stats to examine the case.

Waldner won the Olympics, two World Championships, one World Cup. Ma has won the Olympics, three World Championships and two World Cups. Zhang has also won the Olympics, two World Championships and two World Cups. 

With such similar and high standards of achievement at major events, what then, could decide who is the greatest player in history?

Dominance. Ma Long stands out because he has an aura of intimidation, for many, many years he was deemed to be the ultimate player on the international circuit. 

Ma Long holds the record for the highest number of months as World Number 1, a staggering 64 months (5 years and 4 months total). That includes a consecutive period of 34 months from March 2015 (just under 3 years). This period was only interrupted by the introduction of a new work ranking system.

Ma Long has an unbelievable win rate over his career, particularly during his years as World Number 1. Not only that, but aside from his Chinese teammates, he has a miniscule loss rate to foreign players, even lower than Zhang Jike - who suffered some significant losses to foreigners around 2015 and after.

Ma Long has been a force of sheer dominance. When you compare that with Waldner, you can see a huge difference, here below are some career result records from an interview with Waldner, I omitted from his very early career his loss rations with the older Chinese generation like Cai, Guo and Chen (wins-losses):

Liu Guoliang: 4-5
Jiang Jialiang: 4-8
Kim Taek Soo: 12-11
Yoo Namkyu: 9-2
JP Gatien: 22-11
Andrzei Grubba: 41-20
Zoran Primorac: 20-13
Jörg Rosskopf: 22-11
JM Saive: 26-21 

Here are some of Ma Long's head to heads (wins-losses):

Zhang Jike: 13-6

Wang Hao: 11-12

Xu Xin: 19-8

Fan Zhendong: 13-1

Vladimir Samsonov: 7-5

Timo Boll: 15-4

Dimitrij Ovtcharov: 14-0

Jun Mizutani: 15-0

Koki Niwa: 10-1

Chuang Chih-Yuan: 14-2

Joo Sae Hyuk: 15-2

As you can see there are many players who were able to win against Waldner throughout his career, Waldner was not totally dominant, he just won the big matches when it really counted. 

Ma Long has some unbelievably impressive individual head to head's, his 14-0 and 15-0 over Ovtcharov and Mizutani are major standouts, along with his 13-6 against Zhang Jike, who equals him for major titles.

If Ma Long can go ahead to Tokyo 2020 and win gold there, he will become the first player ever to win a double grand slam. I think he can still achieve this, but my opinion now is that he is indeed the greatest table tennis player of all time, there is nowhere near as much conflict in my mind anymore.

This has been a huge topic for a very long time, and so I certainly hope to get a lot of feedback from everyone whether you think I'm right or wrong. Of course, everyone has their favourites, but in my opinion, if you look at the hard evidence, it become a little more clear, particularly in the past few years.