He is absolutely the best in serve, receiving serves, and other close-table skills since the ITTF banned hidden serving

This. The best player, period.

forgot ma long?

Female players. Totaly crazy...

I don't think so, he used to lose a lot to Wang Liqin on his prime, and in the early 2000s Ma were struggling to defeat top non chinese players (until 2005-2013)

@@PanchoGDMKWiiAt least he has once been the best, that’s fair enough.

Thank you sir

The table's height is fixed there's no bigger or smaller table

table size and height don't change relative to the players. You can have a 5ft playing against a 7ft on the same table. Only the best player stands. Height and age don't matter in this game.

My eyes hurt from you comment

Stay tuned. There will be highlight videos of these players coming soon

there are better ones than the 4 u listed.

xu xin, ma lin, wang hao, ryu seung min, and lastly he zhi wen.

Ma Lin is god of penholder

Ma Lin is definitely the best Penholder. He got everything a great penholder could have: powerful forehand, good foot work, TBP, RPB, variation of spin, flexibility, precise control, tricky serve, perfect 3rd ball attack, amazing tactics, and extremely aggressive but brilliant playing style. Other might better than him in one or two perspectives, but none of them could be as inclusive as him. This man is the avatar of Penhold!

yessir! I don't do click baits lol

believe or not, I recall JJL was the first player to start experimenting RPB

⁠@@pingpongrallyonActually Jiang wasn’t the first, but he was the first one to make people realise the importance of RPB for penholders. The real first RPB user was a Chinese female player called Ge Xinai (葛新爱). She won the women’s singles in the 35th world championships. She’s been using proto-RPB since the 70s, which I believe is the earliest that has been put on record. Back then, some people in China still consider RPB as cheating.

Different eras. Ma Lin in the 2000s and Xu Xin 2010s

Chinese National Table Tennis Team Rules, at a certain age the player is required to retire from their position as a player. They do this with any player that gets too old regardless of how well they play. Some players weren't any good as professional players and retired to being staff roles. Cleaning, and helping to setup things, etc. Fortunately for Ma Lin he was extremely good, and thus they've given him a head coach role. Ma Lin was one of the very oldest professional players to be forced to retire. Regardless he still works for the CNTT team as a coach.

@@Blake-pz7jj There is no such a rule. Ma Lin retired at age 33. In CNTT you have to win the inteam qualifying match to get any top tier competition qualification .Most of the time the CN qualifying match is harder than other top tier match. Ma Lin gradually lose competitiveness after 2009.He tried 3 more years and choose to retire at 2013. Don't you see Ma Long is still competing rn and he is older than Ma Lin in 2008. And it is inappropriate to say Ma Lin is "Fortunate" to get a head coach role. World Champions like Wang Hao/Kong Linghui/Wang Nan/Wang Liqin/Liu Guoliang all work in the indstruy. Liu Guoliang is chairman of CTTA and headcoach of CNTT.Wang Liqin is the vice chairman of CTTA. Others are all become coach. Players you might never heard of also can work in the industry. Chen qi/Qin Zhijian/Liu Guozheng are all become CNTT‘coach now.

Do you expect him to play till 60? He has done enough to prove himself

Agreed, 3rd ball attack refers to when Ma Lin would serve as well, then he would hit 3rd ball. In another word, if his opponent serves, then Ma Lin could not have 3rd ball attack.

different era. Ma Lin's footwork and forehand variation is enough for him to beat Wang Hao IMO

but his footwork can solve this problem

Xu xin is nothing conpared to ma lin

Ma Lin did have a backhand but he mainly used his forehand

Wang Hao wasn't really a penholder he lost big matches to foreigners because his forehand and serve were subpar and Xu Xin can't play near the table which is totally uncharacteristic of Chinese players let alone penholderz.He is a good doubles specialist. In singles he has the same status as Chen Qi and other Chinese lefties. Skills wise Ma Lin was the best third ball attacker/returner of serve of any Chinese and one of the first counter loopers. Achievement wise,probably Guo Yehua was the greatest but he had a reputation of being a chocker in finals and Cai Zhenhua took care of many foreigners for him with his antispin rubber.He lost finals to Japanese veterans and the Hungarians so it's up for debate.

@@dickn.ormous1064 you have no clue what you're talking about bro. He went toe for toe with ma long on all the fh rallies. Gtfo

@@liamcannon9617 That's because Ma Long doesn't have the best forehand. It always lacked spin.Wang Hao lost too many matches to Ma Lin,can't be the greatest penholder getting owned by a player of the previous generation.

I can agree with you. WANG HAO is phenomenal!

no... only his backhand. but wang hao is really someone, who found new way on how to play penhold. :)

@@7912249 His record show he's the best

Ma Lin stats was reported to be 15-10 head-to-head against Wang Hao

Xu Xin the doubles specialist who lost to Mizutani?Even as a doubles player Ma trumps overrated Xu Xin.Got an Olympic gold in 2004.What titles did Xu Xin win?

I don't think it's even close tbh. Accomplishment wise Xu Xin does not come close to Ma lin, and he consistenly lose to the best of the best, while Ma Lin is the best of his era. Ryu has a career 2 win and 22 loss record against Ma Lin, and accomplishment wise Ma Lin is still better so no.