Ryu Seung Min, the fitting protégé of Kim Taek Soo

Ryu Seung Min of South Korea plays with the traditional penhold grip. However, he does not use the underside of the blade like Ma Lin or Wang Hao. The strength of Ryu is his powerful forehand loop shots. Ryu Seung Min is currently placed at ninth in the ITTF world men’s rankings. The highest ranking achieved by him was the second place in September 2004. Afterwards, he had slowly slipped, but had remained within the top ten spots in the last 3 years. Kim Taek Soo, a legend in Korean table tennis, had been coaching Ryu for several years. The most significant time in the life of the table tennis career of Ryu Seung Min was when he won the coveted gold medal in the Olympic Games held in Athens, Greece in August 2004 at the age of 22. He was the first player to break the stranglehold the Chinese had on the Olympic gold medals from 1996. Ryu, ranked number 3 at that time, defeated world number 4, Wang Hao of China, in the men’s singles table tennis event.

Ryu took the first game easily at 11-3, targeting his ferocious forehand loop shots against Wang. However, in the second game, Wang, who was an expert in backhand topspin got his specialty going and made Ryu commit errors. Wang won the game 11-9. The third game was again fought keenly, with both players very aggressive but Ryu managed to take the game 11-9. The fourth game was a repeat of the third, with Ryu prevailing 11-9 again.

In the fifth game, Ryu jumped to an 8-4 lead but Wang changed his tactics. He started attacking from both wings and placed the balls wide or at the body of Ryu, forcing Ryu to make mistakes. Finally, after long rallies, Wang won the game 13-11. In the sixth game, again Ryu led 8-4 but Wang fought back to level at 9-all. This time Ryu did not let the chance go, took the game at 11-9, and was the proud owner of the Olympic men’s table tennis gold medal. In the semifinals, Ryu had overcome the Swedish legend Jan-Ove Waldner 11-9, 9-11, 11-9, 11-5, and 11-5.

Another major title for Ryu Seung Min was at the Men’s Singles event at the ITTF Pro Tour Killerspin U.S. Open in 2004. In the finals, Ryu was facing Chuan Chih-Yuan of Chinese Taipei. Both the players were considered to have the fastest footwork in the world of men’s table tennis. There were long backhand rallies with both players avoiding each other’s powerful forehand. Ryu won the first game 11-9. The second was an extended one, with Ryu leading 10-9, 11-10, 13-12, and 14-13. But he could not hold on to the advantage and Chuan took the game at 16-14. The third game was again a tough one, with Chuan getting 2 game points and Ryu having 4 game points. Eventually, Ryu won the game 15-13. In the fourth game, Chuan led 6-4 but Ryu won 13 out of the next 14 points to take the game 11-7. Ryu was all charged up and he won the sixth game at 11-3, to take the singles title. Earlier in the afternoon, he had also won the men’s doubles event. Thus, he repeated his success earlier in the year in Egypt, when he triumphed in both the men’s singles and doubles events.