Zoran Primorac, Croatian table tennis player

Zoran Primorac is a Croatian, born on May 10, 1969 in Zadar, Croatia. He had a shakehand grip and was ranked world number 2 during February and March 1998. He won the Qatar Open ITTF Pro Tour singles event in 1998. In 1997, he won the China Open ITTF Pro Tour and Australian Open ITTF Pro Tour singles championships. In the Qatar Open, he defeated world number one Vladimir Samsonov and world number two Jan-Ove Waldner. It was a great achievement for Zoran Primorac. One of the earliest matches won by Zoran Primorac was the Beverly Hills Gilbert Table Tennis Cup Men’s Singles Invitational, held in January 1996. The contestants were all table tennis heavyweights. Group A consisted of Jean-Michel Saive, Andrzej Grubba, and Khoa Hguyen. Jan-Ove Waldner, Patric Chila, and James Butler were in the B Group. Kim Taek Soo, Chen Xinhua, and Philippe Saive were in Group C. Zoran Primorac, Eric Lindh, and Cheng Yinghua were placed in Group D. In the first round, Zoran Primorac overcame Cheng Yinghua 18-21, 21-11, 21-11, and 21-12, after a hesitant start.

However, in the next round, he was more confident, defeating Eric Lindh 23-21, 21-12, and 23-21. In the quarterfinals, Philippe Saive played a very smart game and gave a good fight. But Zoran Primorac was unstoppable, once he gained momentum. He took the match 10-21, 21-18, 18-21, 21-11, and 21-7.

In the semifinals, Andrzej Grubba found out that Zoran Primorac was not only big but also powerful on both the right and left flanks, losing 17-21, 15-21, and 14-21. In the finals, Kim Taek Soo was facing Zoran Primorac. An hour earlier, Kim had a 5-game match against Jean-Michel Saive that went on and on to 21-19, 18-21, 18-21, 21-16, and 22-20. Naturally Kim was tired and Zoran Primorac played a near-perfect flawless game to take the title at 21-18, 14-21, 21-19, and 21-14, even though Kim made a strong fightback in the second game. This tournament gave lot of confidence to Zoran Primorac and pushed him into big league table tennis.

Currently, Zoran Primorac is ranked twenty-sixth in the world. Considering that he is 38 years old now, it is not surprising. However, there is a lot of steam left in Zoran Primorac. In the 2006 Canada Cup in November 2006, he was up against Hou Yinghchao in the finals, after beating several young players on the way. Hou was a master in backhand topspin and a ferocious forehand attack. Primorac put up a great fight but finally succumbed in a 7-game match. In the final game, when both the players were 3-all, Hou jumped to a lead of 7-1 but Primorac pulled back to 7-5 and then to 10-8. Still, he was unable to counter the fierce backhand topspin of Hou and Hou won the match. The final score was 6-11, 11-8, 13-11, 11-8, 9-11, 4-11, and 11-8. It was a keen contest, in which Primorac proved that he still had skill, strength, and stamina to test much younger players.