Table Tennis Profile: Michael Maze
Michael Maze is a Danish professional table tennis player and has represented Denmark in the Athens Olympics 2004 as he won the bronze medal in the doubles event. He is one of the best defensive players in the sport and is amongst the top five left-handed
players in the World.
He reached the semi-finals of the World Championships held in Shanghai which helped him secure the best ITTF ranking of his career. Michael is the top ranked player in Denmark and his current World Ranking is 21 as he has secured the 5th position
at the European ranking 2011. Maze has shown his dominance at the European Championships as he has won two gold medals in 2009 single events and 2005 team events.
The 30-year-old is deeply impressed by his former coach and has mentioned that Peter Sartz inspires him the most as he has written on his website, “I will have to say my former coach Peter Sartz. Both professionally and personally, Peter has been an inspiration
to me. He knows how to create a good dialogue and also know when to stop it! That has been a great help to in learning to use my temper in a positive way.” His favourite player is Jan-Ove Waldner as he believed that Waldner is always one step ahead of his
opponents and no one else handles Chinese players the way he does.
Michael’s strength is his forehand and is considered as the World’s best defensive player. He has dominated the table tennis arena many times through his all round play. His strongest weapons include his forehand serve, forehand loop and his defensive play.
He mentioned that winning the World Championship, Olympic Championship and the European Champions is his biggest dream and his future goal.
Maze mentioned that his favourite match so far has been the one against Wang Hao in the World Championships 2005 which helped him secured the bronze medal. Defeating a Chinese player in front of his home crowd was a big achievement because nobody loves the
game as much as they do as he said, “The Chinese have great love and respect for the game and as you can hear they are the greatest crowd.”
Michael made a great come-back at the World Championships 2005 quarter-finals as he defeated Hao Shuai 4-3 in the best of seven sets after being down in the first three sets. He also defeated Wang Hao during the same event and still believes that it was
the best win of his career so far. Maze played Ma Lin in the finals of the 2005 World Championships and despite a good fight by the Danish, Lin dominated the match and won it 4-0.
Maze was the only European player who made it through to the quarter-finals of the World Table Tennis Championships 2009 in Yokohama, Japan as he overcame Panagiotis Gionnis in the final 16th round. He has also defeated Europe’s top player Timo
Boll in the European Championships as the two met up in the semi-final. Michael Maze defeated Werner Schlager in the final securing himself the gold medal at the 2009 European Championships held at Stuttgart, Germany.
Maze is one of the most talented table tennis players in the World, as his tremendous skill and competitive nature are sure to guide him to many more awards and accolades in his career.
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