Why Timo Boll Never Became A World Champion?

* WTTC 1997 eliminated in ro128 by Petr Korbel. He was 16 at the time.

* WTTC 1999 eliminated in ro32 by Kim Taek-soo. Won't be the last JPen to eliminate Timo.

* WTTC 2001 eliminated in ro16 by Chiang Peng-Lung. JPen #2.

* WTTC 2005 was also a super close match against Liu Guozheng and he called LGZ's back edge showing his great sportsmanship but the match didn't go his way.

* WTTC 2007 he just ran into a super in-form Ryu Seung Min. RSM had arguably one of his best tournaments only to narrowly get defeated by WLQ in the semis. JPen #3.

* WTTC 2009 I think Timo had an injury right before the tournament. Unlucky.

* WTTC 2011 In the semis, he ran into Zhang Jike who played out of his mind that tournament.

* WTTC 2013 he ran into the dictator in the quarters.

* WTTC 2015 he ran into little fatty in the quarters.

* WTTC 2017 he ran into the dictator in the quarters again.

* WTTC 2019 he had a fever and had to withdraw in ro16.

* WTTC 2021 ran into Swedish young gun Truls Möregårdh in the semis.

* WTTC 2023 he had an injury he didn't recover in time for the tournament.

I think in 2003 and 2005 was his best chance. He was #1 in the world and was on his game before the Chinese really sat and deciphered his game play. He was the great European hope in the 2000s against insane one-wing play from Wang Liqin, Ma Lin. Wang Hao was introducing a more two-wing play to the CNT during that time. But by the 2010s Zhang Jike, Ma Long, and later Fan Zhendong were playing a more balanced style of play that was Boll's forte but with much more powerful forehands.

Timo, Primorac, Persson, Samsonov, and Kim Taek-soo are a few names that come to mind that I felt barely missed out on filling out their resumes with major tournament wins, especially KTS. Timo I think got a couple of World Cups but always seemed to underperform in the WTTC and the Olympics especially. The CNT 2000s trio of WLQ, Ma Lin, and Wang Hao also seemed to stop each other from getting the grand slam. Ma Lin won several World Cups and the Olympics but got silver a few times in WTTC. Wang Liqin always performed amazingly in WTTC but couldn't get World Cups and got a couple Olympic bronzes. Wang Hao won a WTTC in 2009 when the skills of WLQ and Ma Lin finally started to decline and 3 World Cups but had an interesting relationship with silver at the Olympics (3 times).

Waldner surprisingly only won the World Cup once (1990), Olympics once (1992), and WTTC twice (1989, 1997). Amongst those 4 tournament wins he is considered a Grand Slam winner. I truly thought he would have won way more. He's just an all-time great in my mind.

Liu Guoliang was a grand slam winner 1996 World Cup, 1999 WTTC, and 1996 Olympics. He had really maxed out on skill points for serve, receive, and 3rd ball when hidden serves were allowed. I think he retired after WTTC 2001 when they made hidden serves illegal. He was only 25 at the time.

Kong Linghui was a grand slam winner 1995 World Cup, 1995 WTTC, and 2000 Olympics. I enjoyed watching Kong because he was a very cerebral and smart player. Nothing really stood out in terms of his weapons but he was just a very smart well-rounded player that had a good blend of Chinese and European styles.

Zhang Jike won World twice (2011, 2014), Olympics (2012), and two WTTCs (2011, 2013). He truly was an amazing tournament player from 2011-2014. A shame he lost motivation and apparently his life's just a mess now.

Ma Long is truly the table tennis GOAT with a whopping three WTTCs (2015, 2017, 2019), two World Cups (2012, 2015), and with two Olympic golds (2016, 2020) he was actually prevented from playing singles in 2012 because there were only two representatives per country and Wang Hao and Zhang Jike were chosen. He had an unfortunate hurdle of consistently running into Wang Hao and struggling against him 3 years in a row in the WTTC semis (2009, 2011, 2013). Wang Hao finally retired in 2014 and he started winning WTTCs en masse lol. He could have easily won 2 or 3 more if he could get past Wang Hao. I remember following his career since 2006 when he as a youngster showed a lot of maturity in the way he handled Ma Lin in the 2006 Kuwait Open.

Right, in the World Cup. Very different from the World Championship.