Table tennis has become a very celebrated sport in America. It has been played over the years and has even earned a competition in the Olympics. Although most of its fan base is in Asia, table tennis, previously ping pong, is a recognized sport all over the world. The only noted and significant difference between ping pong and table tennis is that in ping-pong the ball has to first bounce on the server’s side before going onto the offense side. However, all the other rules are the same.
America has seen the rise of several table tennis players over the years and in a bid to find these champions, we have come up with a list of players whom we believe to be the top ten American table tennis players of all time. Thanks Sportten.com for a great and amazing list.
Tim Boggan
Tim Boggan is an 87-year-old American who started playing table tennis with his father when he was little over 3 years old. He, like most people, got introduced to the game as a form of pass time activity, but with time, the sport grew on him, and as he grew up, he continued to pursue it.
He had won several awards all through his life including his first ever cup when he was 10 years old. He was then played in Junior High, College and as an adult. In college, however, he thought the game was taking too much of his academic time and therefore quit for about 10 years. However his passion was too great, and eventually, he went back to playing.
Boggan has been a member is many table tennis clubs and associations and was at one time the President of the USTTA. He has also published writings on the game as he, for the longest period, wrote articles for sports magazines especially those that focused on table tennis, including Winning Table Tennis and History of US Table Tennis. In an interview with Table Tennis World, he confirms of still being a member of the USATT and ITTF. Without a doubt, Boggan is one of the all-time champions of table tennis in the USA.
Kanak Jha
Kanak Jha made history by being the youngest table tennis player in the Olympics. Born in 2000, he is also the first 21st century born child to enter the table tennis Olympic tournaments. He is the child of Indian emigrants to the USA, and he was born and raised in San Jose.
Kanak recollects starting to play table Tennis when he was around 7 years old, only because his older sister played. However, by the time he was a teenager, he had joined all sorts of competition and won. There was even a time where he joined a 21 match tournament and lost only one. At such a young age, Kanak has made a lot of history in the table tennis world and what is best is that he still has so many years, chances and opportunities to make so much more.
Lily Zhang
Lily is a modest 21-year-old American table tennis player who says her career began on her dining table at home. At only nine, she, and her family would quickly clean up the dining table and then convert it into a ping-pong table, net and all. From there she went on playing until she became the first American to win an Olympics medal prior to a Youth Olympics Games.
She has won both bronze and gold medals in the Olympics and other tournaments around the world. Zhang is also a top-ranked American female table tennis player coming in at number 100, according to the ITTF in 2016. She has also been able to play in European matches and traveled overseas because of the game. In fact, Zhang is so dedicated to the game that she took a year off of college to focus on her play. She has even defied doctor’s orders and played with a pulled arm muscle.
David Zhuang
Although David began playing table tennis in China, where he won a lot of matches, he later moved to the US to be with his parents and therefore began playing for the USA in 1990. In this game, he incredibly beat the then US number 3 player, John Onifade. He, however, lost to Huazhang who was playing for China.
During his life, David has won and lost a lot of games but haven’t most of the champions? Perhaps one of the things that make David one of the greatest table tennis players in the history of the US is his character as a person. Most of the people that have worked with David describe him as kind, generous and always willing to help others. David even ran a clinic at the President Dattel’s Westfield Club. There he gave free checkups, training, and counseling to those in need.
David has had most of his success in the 1990’s, and 2000 is one of his best years. He was both in the Olympics and was named male athlete of the year. Currently, however, he is faced with younger and faster players and will soon retire to become a coach maybe.
Robert Buddy Blattner
Buddy will forever be remembered as a phenomenal tennis player. If you do not know who Buddy Blattner is, you may consider looking into the US Table Tennis Association Hall of Fame and the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. He is a renowned American especially because of being the voice behind the NBA’s St Louis Hawks radio broadcast.
Not only was he a gifted table tennis player, winning matches as early as 14 years, he was also multitalented, being able to play long tennis and baseball and of course excelling in the world of media. Blattner played well into his 80’s but unfortunately died from unnamed complications. His dedication and prowess will surely go down in American table tennis and general sports history.
Lily Yip
Lily, like David, also began her career in China, but later moved to the USA to continue with her table tennis passion. Although she is now retired, Ms. Yip is a table tennis coach who has made it her life’s task to make sure table tennis gains the recognition it deserves in the USA.
Although modest in person, Lily Yip is a two time Olympian, has been a member of the USA national women’s table tennis team 12 times and has won twice in the USA Table Tennis Open Doubles. She also so happens to be the coach for the USA national junior table tennis team. She is so in love with the game that she never stops, her daughter says.
Danny Seemiller
According to one of the founders of the South Bend Table Tennis Center, Mr. Phil Schmuker, Danny Seemiller is ‘the most prominent name in table tennis in North America.’ Mr. Seemiller who has been coaching at the center for 21 years has won the USA Nationals Singles five times, the USA Men’s doubles an astounding 12 times and was even the table tennis coach of the Olympic teams in Sydney and Athens; 2000 and 2004 respectively. Seemiller has been in the game for over half a century and has written a memoir called ‘Revelations of a ping pong champion’, which looks back to his life in table tennis. He is truly a man to be reckoned with in the sport.
Erica Wu
Although she was defeated in her Olympic tournament in London, Erica Wu is still a player that deserves recognition. She was born and raised in the USA and began playing at the age of 10 under the influence of her mother. She has also trained under an Olympic champion Gao Jun and was colleagues to the aforementioned Lily Zhang who went on to be in the Rio Olympics as well. Although she has not returned to the national team, Erica Wu continues to play under Princeton circuit where she is studying Computer Science.
Ruth Aarons
Ruth Aarons stated that to win a ping pong match, you had to have very good eyesight and a quick mind. As a result, she did not mind wearing glasses to help her with her short-sightedness. Ruth began playing table tennis out of accident, or perhaps out of fate. She was running from the rain at a hotel’s rooftop when she went to the basement to find something to do. She found a ping pong table and there on became hooked.
She would, later on, become the only American to win a World’s Singles Championship. Not only was she a great table tennis player, but she was also a singer and an actress. Ruth Aarons was so good that, as she was retiring, she mentions that she has won all the championships she could ever want and so she was not going to go back to playing matches and tournaments. She is enshrined in the USATT hall of fame.
Jim Butler
By the time he was 17, Jim Butler had already won 24 USA closed and open championships! He, later on, went to become the youngest male player to reach finals in a U.S National Men’s Championship at only 14. Butler received push and support for the game from his parents when he was still young with his dad as a table tennis coach and his mother a table tennis enthusiast.
However Butler confesses that it was his brother, who was 3 years older, and a table tennis player as well, that inspired him to join the sport seriously. He played in the 1992 and 1996 Olympics and was recognized as being exceptional because despite having tight and rigid muscles that made even digestion hard, he was still able to be a top-notch player of US table tennis.
America has seen the rise of several table tennis players over the years and in a bid to find these champions, we have come up with a list of players whom we believe to be the top ten American table tennis players of all time. Thanks Sportten.com for a great and amazing list.
Tim Boggan
Tim Boggan is an 87-year-old American who started playing table tennis with his father when he was little over 3 years old. He, like most people, got introduced to the game as a form of pass time activity, but with time, the sport grew on him, and as he grew up, he continued to pursue it.
He had won several awards all through his life including his first ever cup when he was 10 years old. He was then played in Junior High, College and as an adult. In college, however, he thought the game was taking too much of his academic time and therefore quit for about 10 years. However his passion was too great, and eventually, he went back to playing.
Boggan has been a member is many table tennis clubs and associations and was at one time the President of the USTTA. He has also published writings on the game as he, for the longest period, wrote articles for sports magazines especially those that focused on table tennis, including Winning Table Tennis and History of US Table Tennis. In an interview with Table Tennis World, he confirms of still being a member of the USATT and ITTF. Without a doubt, Boggan is one of the all-time champions of table tennis in the USA.
Kanak Jha
Kanak Jha made history by being the youngest table tennis player in the Olympics. Born in 2000, he is also the first 21st century born child to enter the table tennis Olympic tournaments. He is the child of Indian emigrants to the USA, and he was born and raised in San Jose.
Kanak recollects starting to play table Tennis when he was around 7 years old, only because his older sister played. However, by the time he was a teenager, he had joined all sorts of competition and won. There was even a time where he joined a 21 match tournament and lost only one. At such a young age, Kanak has made a lot of history in the table tennis world and what is best is that he still has so many years, chances and opportunities to make so much more.
Lily Zhang
Lily is a modest 21-year-old American table tennis player who says her career began on her dining table at home. At only nine, she, and her family would quickly clean up the dining table and then convert it into a ping-pong table, net and all. From there she went on playing until she became the first American to win an Olympics medal prior to a Youth Olympics Games.
She has won both bronze and gold medals in the Olympics and other tournaments around the world. Zhang is also a top-ranked American female table tennis player coming in at number 100, according to the ITTF in 2016. She has also been able to play in European matches and traveled overseas because of the game. In fact, Zhang is so dedicated to the game that she took a year off of college to focus on her play. She has even defied doctor’s orders and played with a pulled arm muscle.
David Zhuang
Although David began playing table tennis in China, where he won a lot of matches, he later moved to the US to be with his parents and therefore began playing for the USA in 1990. In this game, he incredibly beat the then US number 3 player, John Onifade. He, however, lost to Huazhang who was playing for China.
During his life, David has won and lost a lot of games but haven’t most of the champions? Perhaps one of the things that make David one of the greatest table tennis players in the history of the US is his character as a person. Most of the people that have worked with David describe him as kind, generous and always willing to help others. David even ran a clinic at the President Dattel’s Westfield Club. There he gave free checkups, training, and counseling to those in need.
David has had most of his success in the 1990’s, and 2000 is one of his best years. He was both in the Olympics and was named male athlete of the year. Currently, however, he is faced with younger and faster players and will soon retire to become a coach maybe.
Robert Buddy Blattner
Buddy will forever be remembered as a phenomenal tennis player. If you do not know who Buddy Blattner is, you may consider looking into the US Table Tennis Association Hall of Fame and the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. He is a renowned American especially because of being the voice behind the NBA’s St Louis Hawks radio broadcast.
Not only was he a gifted table tennis player, winning matches as early as 14 years, he was also multitalented, being able to play long tennis and baseball and of course excelling in the world of media. Blattner played well into his 80’s but unfortunately died from unnamed complications. His dedication and prowess will surely go down in American table tennis and general sports history.
Lily Yip
Lily, like David, also began her career in China, but later moved to the USA to continue with her table tennis passion. Although she is now retired, Ms. Yip is a table tennis coach who has made it her life’s task to make sure table tennis gains the recognition it deserves in the USA.
Although modest in person, Lily Yip is a two time Olympian, has been a member of the USA national women’s table tennis team 12 times and has won twice in the USA Table Tennis Open Doubles. She also so happens to be the coach for the USA national junior table tennis team. She is so in love with the game that she never stops, her daughter says.
Danny Seemiller
According to one of the founders of the South Bend Table Tennis Center, Mr. Phil Schmuker, Danny Seemiller is ‘the most prominent name in table tennis in North America.’ Mr. Seemiller who has been coaching at the center for 21 years has won the USA Nationals Singles five times, the USA Men’s doubles an astounding 12 times and was even the table tennis coach of the Olympic teams in Sydney and Athens; 2000 and 2004 respectively. Seemiller has been in the game for over half a century and has written a memoir called ‘Revelations of a ping pong champion’, which looks back to his life in table tennis. He is truly a man to be reckoned with in the sport.
Erica Wu
Although she was defeated in her Olympic tournament in London, Erica Wu is still a player that deserves recognition. She was born and raised in the USA and began playing at the age of 10 under the influence of her mother. She has also trained under an Olympic champion Gao Jun and was colleagues to the aforementioned Lily Zhang who went on to be in the Rio Olympics as well. Although she has not returned to the national team, Erica Wu continues to play under Princeton circuit where she is studying Computer Science.
Ruth Aarons
Ruth Aarons stated that to win a ping pong match, you had to have very good eyesight and a quick mind. As a result, she did not mind wearing glasses to help her with her short-sightedness. Ruth began playing table tennis out of accident, or perhaps out of fate. She was running from the rain at a hotel’s rooftop when she went to the basement to find something to do. She found a ping pong table and there on became hooked.
She would, later on, become the only American to win a World’s Singles Championship. Not only was she a great table tennis player, but she was also a singer and an actress. Ruth Aarons was so good that, as she was retiring, she mentions that she has won all the championships she could ever want and so she was not going to go back to playing matches and tournaments. She is enshrined in the USATT hall of fame.
Jim Butler
By the time he was 17, Jim Butler had already won 24 USA closed and open championships! He, later on, went to become the youngest male player to reach finals in a U.S National Men’s Championship at only 14. Butler received push and support for the game from his parents when he was still young with his dad as a table tennis coach and his mother a table tennis enthusiast.
However Butler confesses that it was his brother, who was 3 years older, and a table tennis player as well, that inspired him to join the sport seriously. He played in the 1992 and 1996 Olympics and was recognized as being exceptional because despite having tight and rigid muscles that made even digestion hard, he was still able to be a top-notch player of US table tennis.