Wang Liqin
Viktor Barna
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Dead even across the measured categories. Our all-time ranking places Wang Liqin at #7 and Viktor Barna at #9.
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The case for Wang Liqin
A towering right-hander with one of the most powerful forehand loops the game has seen, Wang Liqin won three World Championship singles titles, in 2001, 2005 and 2007, a haul matched by very few. He spent extended periods as world number one and anchored China's team through the 2000s, adding Olympic team and doubles golds. The great gap in his record is an Olympic singles title, which repeatedly eluded him, denying him the career Grand Slam despite his stature. Blending classical two-wing technique with imposing physicality, he was the dominant force between the Kong Linghui and Ma Lin generations and the Ma Long era, a three-time world champion whose peak would headline almost any other nation.
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.