Vladimir Samsonov: the Tai Chi Master of Table Tennis
Vladimir Samsonov, who is also known as Vladi among his German fans and has been in focus for the last three decades on the international table tennis circuit for his tremendous skill and dexterity.
Vladimir was born in 1976 at Minsk, Belarus formerly part of USSR. He started to play at the age of six and since then he never missed a chance to prove himself as the best player. Whether he won or lost on the table, he played with elegance and gave his
best in the match.
Vladi first appeared on the International Table Tennis circuit in the Youth Championships and the European Junior Table Tennis Championships in 1986. Later in 1988, he claimed the title of the European Youth Championship at Luxemburg. He appeared in the
International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) on the Number seven position in the 2001 world ranking.
Vladimir is a right handed fast attacking player, as he can play all over the table and due to this quality he is known as ‘Tai Chi Master’ in China. Despite his playing skills, he never made it to the Number one seed on the ITTF World Men's ranking. He
remained in the top ten players since he is as on the ranking. His best ranking has been the Number two rank.
His first major achievement was to win the European Master Cup in 1997. He has won the European Top-12 championship held under the European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) four times. In the ITTF circuit he has appeared in 65 Pro Tours and has won the title 22
times. He won the first ITTF tour in 1996 the Italian Open at Bolzano, Italy.
He managed to make a place in the ITTF Pro Tour Men's grand finals twelve times but only won the Singles title once in 1997. This year he appeared in two ITTF Pro tours, the recent German Open where he reached the Men's Singles round of 16 but was defeated
by Chen Qi in straight games. He also appeared in the United Arab Emirates, where he also faced the same fate and his progress was ended by Ryu Seung Min from Korea by 4-2.
He reached the World championships quarter-finals thrice in the Men’s Singles event and made his way to the finals once, but he lost against Waldner and that was probably the best match he as ever played in his career.
Despite of all what he has achieved until now being among the top ranked player and ranking Number one in 1998 his dream remained unfulfilled “winning the World Olympics” the best he got at the Olympics was ending up at Number 16 in the event twice and also
reached the final stage twice.
Vladimir once stated, "It would mean a lot to win a gold medal. I was No. 1 in the world, but winning Olympic gold is still my dream. That would be really special."
In his personal life Vladi is a simple down to earth person he loves humanity and this could be easily seen from the donation he gave to a boy from his earnings for a heart transplant in Malaysia. He has always been generous with his fans and media.
He was not present in the recent ITTF Polish Open, as he won the tournament last year by defeating German player Dimitrij Ovtcharov. Vladimir was seen in action at the Volkswagen Cup where he was defeated by Wang Hao in the semi-finals of the event.
Currently Vladimir is on the eighth seed of the ITTF World Ranking. In the last World championship held in Netherlands, he was defeated be Chen Qi from China in a close match in the round of 16 of the Men's Singles.
Vladimir is having a tough time facing the Chinese in major events. He is certainly looking forward for a major win to make it to the top of the World Ranking and regain his place amongst the top table tennis players in the circuit.
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