Ma Long is 2019 Male Table Tennis Star (Photo: Rémy Gros)
Veteran Ma Long and his Chinese teammate Liu Shiwen were named as the Male and Female Players of the Year respectively by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).
Ma Long saw off the competition from Sweden’s Mattias Falck, Chinese Taipei teenager Lin Yun-Ju and teammate Xu Xin to claim the prestigious accolade for the third time. He had also won the award in 2015 and 2016.
The Chinese superstar, often seen as the greatest in table tennis history came back after a seven month lay-off to win the World Tour men’s singles title in Qatar in March. He followed it up with another win in China in May. It was his eighth title at his home event, and it was also his 28th career title. It helped Ma Long surpass the record held by Belarusian legend Vladimir Samsonov.
In a stunning display in April, he clinched his third consecutive men’s singles world championships in Budapest.
Shiwen won her second award, after winning in 2015 in Lisbon, despite not winning a single title in the World Tour. What she has, however is three World titles.
She bagged the World Championships gold in Budapest in April on her sixth attempt. In October, she emerged successful at the Women’s World Cup in Chengdu. It was her record fifth World Cup crown.
Last month, the 28-year-old played a pivotal role in China’s victory at the Team World Cup. Shiwen made her international debut at the 2004 World Junior Championships in Kobe when she was only 13 years old. She played in all four events – girls’ team, girls’ singles, girls’ doubles, mixed doubles – and lost just one match. She was beaten in the girls’ singles final by her senior colleague, Chang Chenchen.
Puerto Rican Bladimir Diaz was awarded the Star Coach Award for his part in much of the island nation’s success. He guided his daughter, Adriana, to success at the Universal 2019 Pan America Cup, as well as later in the year in Lima to women’s singles gold at the Pan American Games.
At the Pan American Games, His eldest daughter Melanie together with Daniely Rios joined forces with Adriana to help Puerto Rico win the women’s team title.
Based in Utuado, located in the centre of the island, Bladimir Diaz and brother Eladio Afanador started a project some 20 years ago to establish a table tennis club in the town. The result is the Aguilas de la Montaña Table Tennis Club, a state of the art facility which has played a huge part in the development of the sport in Puerto Rico.
In winning the award Bladimir Diaz fought off stiff opposition from two of the world’s finest coaches in China’s Li Sun and Jörg Rosskopf of Germany.
Chinese men’s doubles pair of Xu Xin-Fan Zhendong won the “Star Point of the Year” after having won the award in 2018 and 2016 respectively for their efforts as singles player.
Their winning moment was adjudged better than the poinst picked up the other nominees including Gaston Alto, Timo Boll and Christian Pletea.
The piece of magic happened at this year’s World Tour Japan Open, when Xu and Fan faced Germany’s Qiu Dang and Benedikt Duda. Starting with a basic return, the point pushed both Fan and Xu off the table and led them to quickly exchange positions before Xu threw the textbook out of the window. He whipped an innovative curved sliced return that Fan just somehow avoided. Qiu was on the receiving end, he was quite stunned, he hesitated, point to China.
Thomas Schmidberger was picked as the Male Para Table Tennis Star while the Female Para Table Tennis Star award went to Italian star Giada Rossi.
Lily Zhang was named as the Breakthrough Star, the first player from the United States to receive an award.
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