Ma long won his third world cup this year

I would agree that Ma Long is the greatest and then Waldner is #2. Good job

Ma Long The Dragon! The Captain! The Dictator! The Hexagon Warrior! The Most Complete Player! The Master of All Techniques and Tactics! The Walking Table Tennis Textbook! The Genius! The King of Epic Plays! The Winning Machine! The Record Breaker! The History Maker! The Most Accomplished Table Tennis Player! The Table Tennis GOAT!

Liu Shiwen is really a bit like her mixed partner Xu Xin. Extremely good players but couldn't quite match their god-like teammates in singles. It's not their fault that they couldn't beat the likes of Ma Long and Li Xiaoxia

Zhang jike was a calm player

Ma Long imo the GOAT, Liu Guoliang the GOAT China head coach.

It is very subjective opinion. Still, i think Ma long has the best technique and fundamentals, his proficiency is unmistakable..but again, TT is more than just technique,.Liu Guoliang brings RPB to TT, but Wang Hao is developing it even further. Waldner is master in anticipation, a classic example of control and counter. And last, your chance in winning a game is relatively slim without being aggressive, hard-hitting and fast, you take calculated risk, but you may reap the reward, it is Ma Lin' style of play.

J.O.Waldner is GOAT for me because had best defence of all offensive style players

I think winning a grand slam is not the best criteria for determining the GOAT. Sure, it is a good part of the argument for Ma Long, but there are many other features as well -- such as longevity and contributions to the game of table tennis. I don't think Zhang Jike should be part of the conversations about the GOAT. Sure, he won the grand slam, but he was only at the top of the game for about one year. He was good, but I don't think he contributed much to the game. Also, I think that Ma Lin, Wang Hao, and Wang Liqin should be part of the conversation about the GOAT. They were all far more long-lived than Zhang Jike, and they each contributed significantly to the game in terms of style and strategy. The fact that none of them got a grand slam is only due to all three of them being exceptionally good -- if Zhang Jike had been around in the 2000s, he would not have won a grand slam either. It should also be considered that Liu Guoliang drastically changed the style of table tennis, and he INVENTED the reverse penhold backhand (RPB) which is what has kept the penhold grip alive in the modern era. FWIW, I think it's much more impressive to win 3 olympic silver medals than a single olympic gold. This is a good argument for Wang Hao over Zhang Jike.

I love that guy you say he his backhand master ❤❤

I was very supriesed when hearing that Xu Xin was not a grand slamer😢

ma long backhand is weak...

Come on mate, you don't know how good ding song is. He is at least on par with joo sey hey. Just because ding didn't have big title doesn't mean he was average. At his peak time, he was as good as the super class players. Secondly hou ying chao is a very skilled player, might be #3 in the list. He beat primorac and lots of first class players, achieved Chinese national championship twice(in the second time beat Wang chuqing in the finals) - how many players can do that in your list?

How about you make a video involving Top women defenders ?

Zhang Jike is a very u*ly table tennis player. Second class behaviour

Waldner. He was a man among men. He stood out among all the Chinese dominance.

Wang hao loose 3 finals against zhang ? What a legend too .. imagine loose 3 finals..

Ma long is the goat no doubt But Waldner was more talented at my opinion He deserved the title of Mozart Ma long has a classic game very solid but not really beautiful like Waldner Waldner id Federer of table tennis

Truls will be the next

While I don't disagree with the result, I disagree with the method to consider only grand slam winners somewhat. Reason is that the world cup only exists since 1980, and you automatically exclude older players by that

Perfect list.

You forgot Aida Satoshi, a very talented double inverted rubber defender.

J4N Wa🤕🤔🤐🤤😴☹️😪✌️💯🙏🤲🇮🇩🔥bners

J. O. Waldner is the one for sure!!!!

Karakašević for me simply because of talent. Pretty sure that Waldner himself said that he wouldn't be able to beat king Kara if he trained more... Also he beat Liu at his peak

Asians dominate ping-pong, like black dominate basketball

Great job

Timo's career overlaped with the period when China had absolute dominance. At almost all times Timo was facing 3 Chinese players at his level, if not margianlly higher. Plus the Chinese players had world class coaches and practice partners who know every little detail about Timo's game. He still managed to put up a decent fight. What a legend

Ma Long, obviously. No one else come even close.

Matthew Syed

Good video

Hello. Very good list of defenders! I would definitely agree with the best chopper of all time in Joo as he was consistently in the Top 15 and Top 10, but you have left one of the greatest of all time off this list! Li Gun Sang of North Korea. He was in the Top 10 players of the world and defeated many of the greatest players of all time. Make sure you add him to this list!

I believe you should also mention Chen Xinhua, who was the first Chinese modern defender that came to Europe and Li Gun Sang from PRK. Unfortunately, with the bigger and plastic ball the defenders became an endangered species, to be rarely seen at the highest level of competition.

Here comes 2023 and Alexis Lebron is arguably the best 20 year old Player at present...

Your text - "...of all time". Bergman won his first gold at the World Championships in 1937. By the way, for 67 years he remained the youngest world champion in table tennis. Zoltan Berczik №1 classification in 1956 year. Chen Xin-Hua №6 in 1987.

Why no ladies? Not good enough?

Waldner is GOAT. No one had more talant and skills and from a county with 8 millions people that could sharpen his skills compared to China with a billion. Think about it.

Let's revisit this in 10-15 years so we can talk about Lebrun ;)

Ma Long

I am sure, Waldner is not in the top five, by level.

The chinese are the greatest for sure, but Waldner has personality and flair. Ma Long and Guoliang are probably better, but they couldnt and wont ever entertain as JO can and could.

Ma long no doubt.

Waldner they copied him

Waldner is probably the most talented one, but Ma Long is the best over his whole career, since he was able to perform longer at the highest level.

1) Ma long 2) Liu Guoliang 3) Zhang Jike 4) Waldner 5) Wang Liqin (even though he didnt win the olympics Singles gold, he had the most perfect game)

Good video mate. Although I am a bit confused because the titel says "best" and yet you talk about greatest, these are two different things, "best" is someones peak performance and "greatest" is an aggregate of their whole career. So no the title of "greatest" is not subject it's stats driven, the "best" on the other hand can be and often is subjective. I wonder how much of Bolls success came because he was Left-handed?

Probably Ma Long, there are a lot of great players, Walder, Liu Guoliang, Wang Liqin, Kong Linghui, Timo Ball, Xu Xin, Fan Zhendong, Ma Lin, Zhang Jike, but best of all time, I think in term of agility, power, technique, stamina, consistency, the most balanced player is Ma Long. If we throw all of these players at peak to play 100 games, I’d give my vote to Ma Long

Chen Xinghua was the best (wins against Waldner, best Bundesligaplayer...)

Excellent and inspiring video- both in concept and execution! It provides a brief but very effective format in which to celebrate the greatness of the world's top players, nailed down to specifics in which all of them need to excel. On a more "human" level, these are the same basics to which we amateurs aspire, study, and practice in order to improve our games. Bravo.

As a Swede, I "have" to say J-O.W. BUT! Also does it since he was active over such a long time, adapted his play plan to best opponents AND played during several changes in rules and still kept "on top". So, tbh, it's not "only" because of his nationality. 😊 🇸🇪🏆🇸🇪🏆🇸🇪🏆🇸🇪🏆🇸🇪🏆