Who are the best defenders worldwide ?

[TT-Player 22244]

Off course Joo Se-hyuk, no doubt.

Greetings from Russia!

[Whip McCord]

I think that Chinas Chen Xinghua in his heydeys (from 1984 to '87) was still the best defender of them all. - A little bit stronger as the Ding Song of the mid-nineties and miles ahead of all the other Defenders from Europe, Japan, South or North Korea.

Rumors never stopped that Chen's two Semi-Finals of the World-Championships 1985 and '87 were faked: at least it was obviously very easy - maybe too easy - for the old and new champion Jiang Jialiang to win these matches in Göteborg and New Delhi...

[powerpaul]

His Name is Chen Xinhua, and yes, it´s true. He was perhaps the best defense player all times. In his best days perhaps the World best Player.

The Semi Final in Dehli 1987 ist very boring to look, especially if you saw one round before the Match against Kucharski, which was at this Times a "Defence-Killer".

[Juri Stroganoff]

Zitat von Whip McCord

I think that Chinas Chen Xinhua in his heydeys (from 1984 to '87) was still the best defender of them all. - A little bit stronger as the Ding Song of the mid-nineties.

No doubt: these two - Chen Xinhua in the mid-eighties and Ding Song ten years later - are still top in the all-time ranking.

Talking about the best defenders from Europe in the last 30 years*, the name Engelbert Hüging always came to my mind. Altough Englands John Hilton won the continental title in 1980 (Hüging lost in the quarter-final against Secretin), the German player demonstrated his skills over nearly a decade - Hilton instead was only standing for some months in the limelight.



* Okay, there was Bergmann in the forties and Schöler in the sixties - but in these days it was a different game (besides, my first live impression of high class players in a big competition dates back to the European Championships in Moscow 1984).

[Ludwig]

In the early 1990's there was a tall defensive player named Wang Hao (one of several players with that name, easy to mix up). He was very good, played for some time in the german Bundesliga and played in team competion for china (I am not sure, if he was nominated for singles).