Michael Maze

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Table tennis
Olympic medal record
Bronze	Athens 2004	Men's doubles

Michael Maze (born September 1, 1981) is a male table tennis player from Fakse, Denmark. He normally plays both in the men's singles and in men's doubles. As of 2005, he is one of the top five left-handed players in the world. His strength is in his strong forehand loop and lobbing. He is considered to be one of the best if not the best defensive lobbers in the world right now. His strong forehand loop, his forehand pendulum serve, and his confident defensive play away from the table makes him a solid all-around player.

[edit] Career

Maze won the Europe Top 12 tournament in Frankfurt am Main in February 2004 and won the European Junior Championship in both singles and doubles. He reached the quarter finals in the European Championship for seniors in both series in 2003 playing doubles with Finn Tugwell. Tugwell and Maze participated as partners at the 2000 Summer Olympics where they reached the quarter finals. Maze participated both in men's singles and men's doubles in Table tennis at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Maze lost his first match in men's singles but won bronze with his partner Finn Tugwell^[1].

Michael Maze

Maze's latest achievement was in reaching the semi finals of the 2005 world championship that took place in Shanghai, China, in which he was defeated by the home favorite, Ma Lin, in a swift 4-0 match. Nevertheless, he has managed to put up a memorable performance in the quarter finals of the competition, coming back from a 3-0 deficit to win 4-3 against another Chinese player, Hao Shuai, saving 3 match points; as well as in the previous match, a win against 2004 Olympics Men's singles silver medallist Wang Hao, again from the host nations.

Michael Maze won the prize "BT Gold" as the biggest Danish sportperson in 2005.