There are many celebrities in the table tennis world that I like, first of all, I like the Chinese team, and then there are many people whose playing style or personal temperament charm can attract me, but if I want to say which one is the greatest in my mind, then think about it, and Samsonov alone.
Vladimir samsonov is a Belarusian table tennis player. In 1983, his father sent him to the table tennis school in Minsk to learn to play, when the elder Sa was 7 years old. In 1992, he joined the German first division table tennis team Sedov and soon became the main player of the team. He won the Swedish Open Table Tennis Championships men's singles champion in 1995, the men's singles champion at the 2001 Table Tennis World Cup, and the World Cup again in 2009.
Lao Sa holds the racket horizontally in his right hand, has comprehensive technique, strong defensive ability, soft and rigid, and is good at causing mistakes of opponents. In his early years, he was known as the "Three Tigers of Europe" alongside Waldner and Primorats, and is still active in the world table tennis arena today.
To their credit, Samsonov has won 27 singles titles on the ITTF Tour, making him a well-deserved "world number one"!
Lao Sa's serve action is the most handsome I think, looks very graceful, want to learn but unfortunately did not learn, mainly the temperament is not as gentlemanly as Lhasa looks, haha.
In addition to the ITTF Tour, Samsonov is also the "King of the Champions League" – he has won nine times for three clubs in 15 years! Such a performance, not only the active pol and Ochalov can not be matched, even Waldner and Primoratc also have to be willing to take the upper hand.
Samsonov's biggest regret is that he encountered the Chinese table tennis team in his career: in 1995, Samsonov, who participated in the World Table Tennis Championships for the first time, challenged Ma Wenge, and then Wang Tao was also his main opponent; then Liu Guoliang, Kong Linghui; now, he continues to fight with Ma Long, Zhang Jike, Xu Xin and the younger Fan Zhendong. Samsonov famously said: "It is difficult for you to beat your Chinese opponents in the international arena, it is difficult to defeat one, and you will meet another in the next round." "But I think other foreign players have the same feelings as Samsonov in the past 20 years, after all, Chinese players have dominated the world table tennis for so many years." And this is the only person who can achieve such an achievement as Samsonov in the cracks.
At last year's Rio Olympics, Mizutani Falcons buckled Samsonov for 21 shots
Samsonov, who was originally defeated by countless Chinese athletes, should have "hated Chinese athletes to the bone", but on the contrary, in many interviews, Samsonov has expressed respect for Chinese athletes. In the men's singles quarterfinals of the 49th World Table Tennis Championships, in the face of Marlene's edge ball, in the absence of the referee,Samsonov actively admitted that it should be Marlene to score, such a gentlemanly performance also won the respect of table tennis fans around the world, including Chinese fans.
On April 17, 2017, on his 41st birthday, Samsonov said: "I still want to compete in the Tokyo Olympics. Perhaps in his career, "Lao Sa" can not steal the Olympic and World Table Tennis Men's Singles Championships from the hands of Chinese athletes, but his persistence and enthusiasm for table tennis are worthy of the applause of any opponent and any fan. I believe that Lao Sa is not only a player I admire in my mind, but also a great player in the minds of many others.
Samsonov, a 41-year-old table tennis star, was awarded the National Medal of Honor