| Paul Drinkhall | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Full name | Paul Andrew Drinkhall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 16 January 1990 Middlesbrough, England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.76 m (5 ft 9+1⁄2 in) [1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 80 kg (13 st; 180 lb) [1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Highest ranking | 32 (September 2016) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Paul Andrew Drinkhall (born 16 January 1990) is a British table tennis player. [2] [3] He won the English Championship in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2016 and 2017. [4]
Drinkhall was born in Middlesbrough. [4] His career in table tennis started in 1997 when he went along to watch his grandfather Ray play in a local league near his home. [5] He enjoyed much success as a youngster, winning numerous national championships at his age level, and at levels above his own age. This success did not go unnoticed, as he was shortlisted for BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year in 2005, [6] and finished in second place after Theo Walcott in 2006. He was again shortlisted for this award in 2007. He once again finished in 2nd place in 2007.
In April 2008 Drinkhall signed with the German team TTC Indeland Jülich for the 2008–09 season, [7] having previously played for another German club, Goennern. In December 2008 he was runner-up at the World Junior Table Tennis Championships in Madrid, losing to Chen Chien-an in the final. [8] In 2010 Drinkhall signed with the Belgian Super Division club Nodo TTC Ekeren. [9]
At the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi he won a silver medal in the Men's Team event and a bronze medal in the Mixed Doubles events.
Drinkhall has been National Champion in every age group so far eligible to compete in - Under 10, Under 11, Under 12, Under 14, Under 17, and Senior Men. Paul became the youngest player since Chester Barnes to win the English Senior Men's title in Sheffield in March 2007 when he overcame the much more experienced former champion Alex Perry from Devon in the 4 - 1 contest[ citation needed ].
Drinkhall moved to Italy in September 2011, joining the Sterilgarda club with the intention of raising his performances in the run-up to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. [10]
Paul Drinkhall qualified for the 2012 Olympic games through a host nation place. [11] In the singles event, Paul defeated Kuwait's Ibrahim Alhasan 4–0 in the preliminary round then beat world ranked 52, Yang Zi from Singapore. [12] In the last 32 stage, Paul lost to Germany's Dimitrij Ovtcharov. [12]
In 2012 Drinkhall joined Werder Bremen's table tennis team and returned to the table tennis Bundesliga [13] after previous spells with Goennern, TTC Indeland Jülich and SV Plüderhausen. Paul was part of the Werder Bremen team that won the Bundesliga that season. [14]
Paul Drinkhall married Joanna Parker, also a professional table tennis player and a multiple English champion, in August 2013. [15]
Drinkhall became only the second English player (after Carl Prean) to win a tournament on the ITTF World Tour Open circuit when he won the Spanish Open in April 2014. [16] This was the first win for a British player in a World Tour singles event in 18 years. [17]
The following month he was part of the England men's team which clinched promotion to the top level of world table tennis at the World Team Championships in Japan.
In June 2014 it was announced that he would be leaving Werder Bremen and rejoining TTC Nodo for the 2014–15 season in order to obtain more playing time, although Werder said that Drinkhall would continue to train with the German club when he was not playing for Nodo or the English national team. Paul won the Belgian League that same season with Nodo. [18]
Drinkhall represented England at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, winning a silver medal in the team competition as Singapore took gold in a repeat of the 2010 result. [19] Paul and Joanna Drinkhall subsequently won a gold in the mixed doubles competition, defeating fellow English pairing Liam Pitchford and Tin-Tin Ho in the final. [20] [21]
In November 2014, Drinkhall reached the final of the Russian Open, beating several top-25 players along the way, including top seed Dimitrij Ovtcharov and third seed Marcos Freitas. [17] His results on the ITTF World Tour meant he qualified for the Grand Finals to be played in Bangkok in December, becoming the first Englishman to compete at the event since 1996. [22] [23] His performances also lifted him to a new career high of No 33 in the ITTF world rankings. [24]
At the inaugural European Games in Baku in June 2015, Drinkhall was seeded 16 and reached the semi-finals, losing to top seed Dimitrij Ovtcharov. He was then beaten in the bronze medal play-off by Lei Kou. [25]
In November 2015, Drinkhall won the men's singles at the Aquece Rio International Tournament - the test event for the Rio Olympics.
In March 2016, Drinkhall was part of the England team, alongside Liam Pitchford and Sam Walker, which won bronze medals at the World Team Championships in Malaysia, England's first medal at that level since 1983 and the first time a newly promoted team had earned a podium place at the event. [26] The same month, he won the national men's singles title for the fifth time in his career. [27]
Drinkhall represented Team GB in singles and team event at the Rio 2016 Olympics, becoming only the third Brit in history to reach the last 16 stage of the singles. [28] In the team event, alongside Liam Pitchford and Sam Walker, he helped GB beat France in the first round, [29] before GB were knocked out by China. [30] After the 2016 Summer Olympics, Drinkhall reached his career-high No 32 spot of the world ranking in September. [24]
In March 2017, Paul became the English Senior National Champion for the 6th time with a 4–2 victory over Sam Walker in the final.
In February 2018, Drinkhall was part of the England squad alongside Liam Pitchford, Sam Walker, David McBeath and Tom Jarvis which won bronze medals by reaching the semi-finals of the ITTF Team World Cup in front of a home crowd at the Copper Box Arena in London. [31]
At the Commonwealth Games in Australia in 2018, Drinkhall won the gold medal in the men's doubles alongside Liam Pitchford [32] and was part of the England squad which won men's team bronze, alongside Pitchford, Sam Walker and David McBeath. [33]
In 2019, Drinkhall became the first English player to win two ITTF World Tour events when he won the Serbia Open. [34]
In 2021, Drinkhall qualified for the Tokyo Olympics at the last minute following Samsonov's abrupt withdrawal from the event. [35]
At the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, Drinkhall and Liam Pitchford successfully defended their men's doubles title. [36] Drinkkall also reached the men's singles bronze medal play-off, where he was beaten by Sathiyan Gnanasekaran of India. [37] Drinkhall, Pitchford Sam Walker and Tom Jarvis won bronze in the men's team event. [38]
In 2024, he won a 7th men's singles and 14th men's doubles title at the English National Table Tennis Championships, held at the David Ross Sports Village in Nottingham. [39]
Achanta Sharath Kamal is an Indian professional table tennis player. He is the first Indian table tennis player ever to become ten time Senior National Champion hence breaking the record of eight-time National Champion Kamlesh Mehta. In 2019 he was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award and in 2022, he was awarded the Khel Ratna Award, India's highest sporting honour. He beat Joo Se Hyuk and Chuang Chih-yuan, world no. 8 and 16 respectively in 2015 28th Asian cup at Jaipur. Sharath won the men's singles gold in the 16th Commonwealth table tennis championship held at Kuala Lumpur in 2004. He is a recipient of the Arjuna award for the year 2004.
Timo Boll is a German professional table tennis player, who currently plays for Borussia Düsseldorf. He is currently ranked 23rd in the ITTF world rankings as of August 2024. Boll is the most successful German table tennis player of all time, having won several medals at Olympic Games, world cups, and world championships. He was ranked world No. 1 in 2003, 2011 and in March 2018.
Yang Zi is a Chinese-born Singaporean former table tennis player.
Dimitrij Ovtcharov or Dmytro Ovtcharov is a Ukrainian-born German table tennis player. His father Mikhail, a Soviet table tennis champion in 1982, moved his family to Germany shortly after Dimitrij was born.
Bojan Tokić is a Slovenian table tennis player.
Koki Niwa is a Japanese male table tennis player. He is the gold medalist at the 2010 Youth Olympics and he won the World Junior Table Tennis Championships in 2010 (doubles) and 2011 (singles).
Liam Benjamin Pitchford is an English table tennis player. He is sponsored by Victas.
Joanna Drinkhall is a British table tennis player.
Yo Kan, or Han Yang in Chinese, is a Japanese table tennis player of Chinese origin. He won two gold medals in the men's singles at the 2007 ITTF Pro Tour series in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and in Santiago, Chile. As of December 2012, Kan is ranked no. 99 in the world by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). Kan is a member of the table tennis team for Tokyo Art Club in Tokyo, Japan, and is coached and trained by Ryo Yuzawa. Kan is also right-handed, and uses offensive, penhold grip.
Tin-Tin Ho is an English table tennis player, born and raised in London. She has won multiple national titles, as well as two Commonwealth silver medals, and appeared at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Samuel Jake Walker is a British table tennis player.
The men's singles table tennis event was part of the table tennis programme at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The event took place from 6 August to 11 August 2016 at Riocentro.
The men's singles in table tennis at the 2015 European Games in Baku was the 1st edition of the event in a European Games. It was at the Baku Crystal Hall from 16 to 19 June 2015.
Mattias Falck is a Swedish table tennis player.
Patrick Franziska is a German table tennis player. He is currently sponsored by Butterfly and plays with FC Saarbrücken-TT in the German Bundesliga (TTBL).
The men's singles table tennis event was part of the table tennis programme at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. The event took place from 24 July to 30 July 2021 at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.
Lin Yun-Ju is a Taiwanese table tennis player. He is a left-handed player who plays with the shakehand grip.
The 2020 ITTF Men's World Cup was a table tennis competition held in Weihai, China, from 13 to 15 November 2020. It was the 41st edition of the ITTF-sanctioned event. After series of cancellation of tournaments due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports this year, the ITTF World Cup is one of the three year-end tournaments that conclude the table tennis calendar in 2020. The other two, 2020 ITTF Finals and the inaugural World Table Tennis Macao), were also all held in November in China.
The 2020 ITTF Finals, also referred to as the Bank of Communications 2020 ITTF Finals for sponsorship reasons, was a table tennis tournament that took place from 19 to 22 November 2020 in Zhengzhou, China. The tournament was organised by the International Table Tennis Federation as a one-off replacement for the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals, which was cancelled in 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports.
The men's singles in table tennis at the 2023 European Games in Kraków was held at the Hutnik Arena from 23 to 27 June 2023.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
