Ma Lin (table tennis)
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Ma Lin is a world class table tennis player born on February 19, 1980 in the Shenyang Liaoning Province of China. He is currently the world's number one ranked player. He learned to play table tennis at the age of six and became a member of the provincial team in 1990. In 1994, he joined the Chinese national team.
[edit] Style
Ma Lin's style is the penhold style. However, in addtion to the traditional backhand push, Ma has also incorporated the reverse backhand, resulting in 3 different possible strokes to use during a game(forehand, backhand ,reverse backhand). The reverse backhand is an innovative stroke to compromise for the penholder's already weak backhand. It utilizes the underside of the blade, whereas only one side was originally used.
[edit] Titles
2002 ITTF Pro TOur Men's Singles Title
2004 Athens Olympic Games - 1st doubles (with Chen Qi)
2006 Mens' World Championship 2nd place
2006 Singapore Open
2006 Men's World Cup