$20,000,000
Ma Long
Net Worth
Born in (City)
Anshan
Born in (Country)
China
Date of Birth
28th December, 1988
Date of Death
-
Mother
Father
About
Ma Long is a Chinese table tennis legend and the current Olympic and World Champion. Arguably the best forehand attacker in table tennis history, Ma has a playing style conforming to the modern strategy of close-range third ball play. At the beginning of his career, his play strategy was primarily forehand-oriented, dominating play with powerful forehand loops, with Ma using his backhand only for controlled returns to set up the forehand. He still plays a forehand-oriented style, but his backhand has become more consistent, stable, and powerful as his career has progressed. Compared to when he was younger, he is much more confident using his backhand to attack and defend.
Arguably the best forehand attacker in table tennis history, Ma has a playing style conforming to the modern strategy of close-range third ball play. At the beginning of his career, his play strategy was primarily forehand-oriented, dominating play with powerful forehand loops, with Ma using his backhand only for controlled returns to set up the forehand. He still plays a forehand-oriented style, but his backhand has become more consistent, stable, and powerful as his career has progressed. Compared to when he was younger, he is much more confident using his backhand to attack and defend.
Early Life
Ma Long was born on 20 October 2020, in Anshan, Liaoning, China. At age 5, he was introduced to table tennis by his parents who felt an injury-free non-contact sport was good for his health. His first coaches during these early days were Shi Haimei, Bai Xiaodong, and Jiang Wenkun who also coached other Chinese table tennis superstars like Li Xiaoxia and Guo Yue. He keeps in contact with his first coaches till today. In 1988, when he was just 10 years old, Ma Long represented his primary school in the "Baby Cup", one of the biggest national kids’ tournaments in China, and won the boy’s singles and team event there. A year later, at age 11, he earned himself a place on the Liaoning Provincial Team and left Anshan to train with the team. 2 years after this, he was scouted by Beijing. As he began to train with the best national players, he began to get better and his sports career began to rise. Then, at the age of 14, Ma Long attended a training camp in Jiaozuo, Shandong in 2003. There, he ranked inside the top 20 juniors out of 60! The Chinese National Junior Team was impressed with his performance and achievement and they recruited him. This later became the Chinese National B Team.
After this, in February 2003, the 14-year old played a challenge match with Slovakia’s Lubomir Pistej who was 19 years old at the time, and Long lost (4-0). The next day, Long beat Sweden’s 27-year old Mattias Stenberg of Sweden who was the Swedish Senior Champion that year. This was followed by him playing for Club Beijing in the China A-League. After this, he was finally able to achieve his goal to join the China National Senior A-Team. Then at age 15 in 2003, he joined the China Super League and played for Shanxi Yinhe club, and became the World Cadet Champion in the singles, doubles, and team. After defeating Jun Mizutani 4-1 in the final of the World Cadet Champion, Ma Long went on record and gave the following statement- "My goal is to be selected for the upcoming World Junior Championships, I feel the coaches have confidence in me. I hope I will get the opportunity." He did get the opportunity and in 2004, Ma Long won the World Junior Championships in Kobe, Japan.
He married his beloved girlfriend Zhang Yaqing on December 8th, 2013 in Beijing. Their son was born on 9th December 2017. For the Chinese, commitment to family is very important, and so is bringing a good name to the family. Ma Long has done that for his family. It is quite clear that his constant training and dedication since a young age has paid off for him. If anything, one thing that we can learn from Chinese sportspersons like him is that hard work never fails anyone, and any failure that happens in the journey is just another learning experience, just another course correction.
Road to Success
Ma Long was 17 when he became the youngest ever World Senior Champion in 2004 after his team won gold at the 2006 World Team Championships in Bremen. 2015 was a particularly good year for Long as he won the Kuwait Open ITTF World Tour, German Open, and also the China Open 2015 for a 6th time, followed by the Chinese Super League Champions, World Cup 2015 Champion, and World Tour Grand Final 2015 Champion. The following year he won the German Open again, after defeating Vladimir Samsonov in the final. Following this victory, Long went on to win the Qatar Open by defeating Fan Zhendong. This gave Ma Long the record for winning the most World Tours by a Chinese player. To top that, Ma Long won the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament. All these victories gave him a world ranking that allowed him to be automatically qualified into round 3 of the Rio Olympic Games in 2016. By winning gold in Rio, he became one of the greatest players of all time completing a grand slam victory (World Champion, World Cup Champion, Olympic Champion). Not satisfied, he ended the year by winning the World Tour Grand Finals for a record 5 times. For all these achievements, he was awarded the male athlete of the year at the China Central Television (CCTV) Sports Awards Gala in Beijing.
in March of 2019 at the Qatar Open, where his victory tied him with Vladimir Samsonov for the most ITTF World Tour singles titles by a male player with 27. He also won his third consecutive World Championship in 2019, becoming the first player since Wang Liqin to win three such titles and the first since Zhuang Zedong (in 1961, 1963, and 1965) to win them consecutively.
As of March 2020, Long is ranked number 3 in the world by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). He had been number 1 for a total of 64 months (and 34 consecutive months from March 2015), the most by any male player in the history of table tennis, before coming down to number 3 this year. He is arguably the best forehand attacker in table tennis history. He is known for his quick, simple-looking yet deceptive and adaptive styles and is thus is well respected in the table tennis world. He has been nicknamed “the Dragon” due to his well-earned reputation for being able to easily and quickly decimate competitors.
Challenges
His other professional rivals are Zhang Jike and Fan Zhendong with whom he has had both wins and losses. He withdrew from international competitions towards the end of 2017 as his baby was soon to be born and because of this absence, by 2018, his world ranking had dropped to 9th place.
Failures
The first real rival that Ma Long had was Wang Hao to whom he lost twice in the final of the Asian Championships in 2007 and 2009 and also in the final of the China National Games and All-China Championships in 2009. Even though Ma Long was considered the best in the world alongside Zhang Jike at that time, his losses to Wang Hao and a loss to Koki Nawa at the Asian Olympic Qualification for the London 2012 Olympic meant that Wang Hao was taking his place at the London Olympics. His losses to several European players including Timo Boll and Vladimir Samsonov in between 2009-2013 led many to believe that he was cracking under pressure. He also had 3 consecutive losses to Wang Hao in the semi-finals of the World Championships during this period.
The one non-Chinese who could be considered to have given him a run for his money the most would be Tomokazu Harimoto, a rising Japanese star, who defeated him 6 times at the 2018 Japan Open. A knee injury also led to other losses and his subsequent withdrawal from several competitions from that point onwards.
Achievements
Secured gold in the Asian Games which was held in Guangzhou in the year 2010|Emerged out as the winner of All China Table Tennis Championships in the year 2011|Won the World Cup in men’s singles, convened in Liverpool in the year 2012|Winner of the China National Games in the year 2013|World Cup winner at Halmstad in the year 2015|International Table Tennis Federation (IITF) ranked him No.1 in the world in the year 2016|Most ITTF World Tour singles titles (28) by a male player.|Most major titles (11) of any male player.
Quotes
- Glory is attained from hard work, step by step.