Liu Guoliang was a brilliant player. I never realized how good he was until watching this video. I can see the beginnings of all the current Chinese players in Liu Guoliang. And I can see elements of Waldner in Liu.
@QuantumStates Waldner and Liu are the same style of player. They focused on tactics and variation. They were all good at service and receive. For latest player, Ma Lin and Schlager are close to this style.
Waldner and Liu were completely different style of players.Waldner played with spin while Liu was a flat hitter.Waldner like Liu had an exceptional serve but he also had other weapons which is why he had an even score against his training partner (Persson)while Liu never beat Kong Linghui.Liu didn't have much variation in his game.He couldn't defend and once he backed away from the table he was pretty useless.
there is one or two men penhold player(s) in Chinese Men National second Team (level 2). Also, Zhan Jian who was the former Chinese National team uses short pips in forehand.
This does not look like an ordinary world championships. The title states, "World Table Tennis CLUB Championship". Do they still hold this event? Looks like Jorgen's team is the pro team he was on back then. What pro team was Guoliang on back then?
Though powerful in 1999, both players aren't powerful enough by today’s standard to compete at the final of a TT Grand Slam, especially against an opponent like Ma Long, Zheng Jike or Xu Xin. For one thing, Liu Guoliang was too short to deal with the ever-expanding range of court coverage required for the player. Persson simply didn’t have enough firepower on his FH/BH sides. In short, today’s table tennis would be too much “brutal competition” for them. The world has changed dramatically.☆☆☆☆☆
Persson didn't have enough power?He was 186cm very fast with unreadable sidespin shots coming from the wrist.He is certainly more powerful than many chubby Chinese players.He had a terrible car crash in 1994 and developed whiplash syndrome but still beat Liu Guoliang,Liu Guozheng and Kong Linghui in 2000. The guy was part of the Swedish National team in the 80's.He was a beast!Go watch his 2012 Olympic match against Boll.He runs cycles around him.
