Viktor Barna
Ma Lin
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Ma Lin leads 2 of 4 categories. Our all-time ranking places Viktor Barna at #9 and Ma Lin at #10.
Head-to-head FAQ
Who leads more shared metrics?
How do the published ranks compare?
Are these live stats?
The case for Viktor Barna
The dominant figure of the hardbat era, Viktor Barna won five World Championship singles titles between 1930 and 1935 and amassed more than twenty world championship titles across all events, a total that stood as a benchmark of dominance for decades. Playing before the Olympics and World Cup existed, he could not chase a modern Grand Slam, but within his own age he was untouchable, leading a Hungarian dynasty that ruled interwar table tennis. His attacking flair on thin pimpled rubber influenced generations and helped popularise the sport across Europe. Later based in England, he remained an ambassador for the game. Judged against his contemporaries, no early player was more prolific, and his singles record is among the greatest ever.
The case for Ma Lin
The finest penhold player of the modern era, Ma Lin was a master of serve, short game and the reverse-penhold backhand who won four Women's, and men's, World Cup singles titles, a men's record, in 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2006. His crowning achievement was Olympic singles gold at Beijing 2008, won in front of a home crowd, along with team and doubles golds. The conspicuous gap in his record is a World Championship singles title, which repeatedly slipped away and denied him the career Grand Slam. Renowned for the finest serve and touch of his generation, he kept the classical penhold style competitive at the very top even as shakehand play came to dominate the sport.