World Class Players
Thousands and thousands of articles have been written about the best table tennis players in the world. Most of these articles reflect on the players’ performance in tournaments.
Yet the game itself and the players’ personal development are hardly ever mentioned.
At Compass we turn our focus in this direction as we try to answer that crucial question:
what exactly made a particular player so good?
’Ich spiele nicht, um Aufmerksamkeit zu bekommen. Ich spiele, um Titel zu gewinnen.’
Tomokazu Harimoto

Dimitrij Ovtcharov
Father and son forever
”Everything I know, and everything I have achieved, I attribute to my dad.”
These words from Dimitrij Ovtcharov, number five of the world’s male table tennis ranking, reflect the extraordinary relationship between “Dima” and his father Mikhail. Their successful cooperation started at home when Dima was just a small child – and will continue until the day Dima ends his career.

Tomokazu Harimoto
Der Japaner Tomokazu ’Tomo’ Harimoto ist der jüngste Jugendweltmeister in der Geschichte des Tischtennissports bei den Herren, der jüngste U21-Gewinner bei einem Pro-Tour-Wettbewerb, der jüngste Viertelfinalist bei einer Senioren- Weltmeisterschaft.

Jörgen Persson
In two memorable World Table Tennis Championships finals Persson faced fellow Swede Jan-Ove Waldner in 1989 and 1991, losing the former and winning the latter. He also won four World Championship titles in Team.
Fagartikkel
„What made me successful, was to really play a lot table tennis when I was young.“ Mikael Appelgren
If you mix chess and 100 meter sprint, you get table tennis Stellan Bengtsson, World Champion