Chen Qi is a left handed table tennis player from China. He was born on April 15, 1984 in Nantong, Jiangsu Province in China. He joined the provincial team at the age of 12 and was selected for the Chinese National Team in October 2002. Chen Qi won the men’s doubles Gold medal in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, playing with world number one Ma Lin.

He was the youngest player ever to win a Gold medal in table tennis in the Olympic Games, when he won the Men’s Doubles event with Ma Lin. Chen Qi was just 16 at that time. Chen Qi had been placed seventh in the ITTF World Men’s Table Tennis ranking. From March 2006 till January 2007, he was in the sixth place. From January 2004, he had been within the top ten ranks. In July 2009, Chen Qi stands at the 7th place in the world rankings. His position in Asia as well as in his own country China is No. 5.

At the 2004 ITTF Pro Tour in Kobe, Japan, Chen Qi won the singles title. He had been the runner-up at the Pro Tour events in Velenje, Slovenia, in Zagreb, Qatar, and in Kuwait City, Kuwait, all in 2006. In several other Pro Tour tournaments, he reached the semifinals and quarterfinals.

In the Pro Tour Grand Finals, he reached the quarterfinals in 2003 in Guangzhou, China, in 2004 in Beijing, China, and in 2006 in Hong Kong. In the first 2 events, he won the doubles title and in the third, he was the runner-up in doubles. He had won the doubles title in several international events in the last 5 years.

At the 2004 Volkswagen Open in Kobe, Japan, Chen Qi obtained his first ever ITTF Pro Tour Men’s Singles title. In the finals, he was facing Chuan Chih-Yuan. They had played each other 3 times before and Chen Qi had won all the encounters. In Kobe, Chen Qi got off in grand style, winning the first game 11-4, with his usual rapid fire attacking style. In the second game, he was extended a little, but still won the game 11-8. Continuing in the same fast vein, he won the third game 11-4.

In the fourth game, in his eagerness to speed up further, Chen Qi started making mistakes. The fourth game saw a very keen fight with the players exchanging the lead continuously but finally Chen Qi was serving for the match at 10-9. Chuan Chih-Yuan did not give up. He won the next 3 points to take the game 12-10, coming back into the match. In the fifth game, they were level at 6-all, when Chuan went ahead to win the game 11-6. Now, Chen Qi started playing positively, while Chuan started making mistakes. Chen Qi won the sixth game 11-4. He never allowed Chuan to come back into the match again even when the score was level at 9-all. He played decisively and took the game 11-9. Chen Qi had won his first Men’s Singles title on the ITTF Pro Tour after his previous Men’s Doubles Title with Ma Lin.

LIEBHERR Austrian Open, in 2007, proved extremely good for Chen Qi where he reached finals of the Men’s Single event after beating Hong Kong’s Li-Ching by 11-7, 11-3, 11-4, 9-11, 11-8. This was their fourth event together at the World ranking level. For Chen Qi, this was a successfully turned revenge opportunity since Chen Qi was defeated by Li-Ching in their last match together held in January 2007 at the Gorenje Slovenian Open.

In May 2009, Chen Qi, in partnership with Wang Hao, won the Men’s Doubles at the H.I.S. World Championships in Yokohama, Japan.

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