Croatia's Champ Aiming for Top 10 and Olympic Medal

I had the pleasure of interviewing one of Europe's stronger players, Andrej Gacina from Croatia. Check out the interview below and for more top international player interviews head to my Interviews Page.

Full Name: Andrej Gaćina
Age: 28
Date Of Birth: 21.5.1986.
Nation Represented: Croatia
Highest World Ranking: 18

Croatia's Andrej Gacina
Image from ETTU

Equipment Used?
Blade: Butterfly Innerforce ZLC
FH Rubber: Tenergy 05
BH Rubber: Tenergy 80

Your Career

How long have you been playing table tennis for, when and how did you start?
I am playing table tennis since I was 6 years old. I started at age of 6, first I started with football (played it for about 3 months) but then I switched to table tennis because at that time Croatia was in war against Serbia and I played table tennis inside the hall and football was on open field so it was less dangerous.

Who has been the biggest influence on your career so far?
I had many coaches so I cannot say that only one coach influenced my career. But some of coaches that made a big influence in my career are: Zvonimir Korenic – present Croatian team coach; Dubravko Skoric – present coach of TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen and the one who probably helped me the most is Chen Zhibin – former Chinese national team player and Top 10 in the World ranking list back in the time

How did you progress from starting table tennis into becoming a professional player?
The biggest turning point in my career was when I left education and started to pursue more professional my table tennis career. I made that decision at 18 years of age.


You just reached a career best World Ranking of 18th. How does it feel to be in this position and do you see a possibility to reach the top 10?
It feels great to be among 20 best players in the world and I feel I have more room to improve my game which will hopefully get me to better places then 18 in the world.

Andrej's amazing effort to save a match point from Timo Boll

You had an amazing rally with Timo Boll in the 2013 European Championships where you managed to retrieve a number of difficult balls to try and save his championship point. What was in your mind during this point?
I just did not want to give up no matter how difficult the ball was that Timo played against me and I think the last shot I played with my forehand was really difficult to play against because I gave a lot of downspin but Timo just played it back with ease, and that shows how great a player he is.

You have won a gold medal in doubles at European Championships, do you feel you are in strong form to content for a singles medal next time?
If I will be in good shape at that tournament then I think I have a chance to win a medal.

In the recent Euro championships the new ball was played. How did you feel about playing with the new ball and its performance?
The new ball is not that much different but there are some differences. Like, it is not possible to produce much spin like with the celluloid ball and the ball is a bit slower then the celluloid one. But the biggest issue is the quality of the balls. They break much easier than the old ones and I think the manufacturers should think better how to make the balls firmer.

A formidable pairing, Marcos Freitas and Andrej Gacina in Doubles together

What is your biggest goal in table tennis?
To win a medal at Olympic games.


Off the Topic QuestionsWho’s your favourite sportsperson of all time?Michael Jordan

Favourite food?
Steak with grilled vegetables

What do you do when you aren't playing table tennis?
I rest :)

Dream Car?
Aston Martin V12 Vantage

Ideal holiday destination?
Croatia ;)

First thing you would do if you won $1million?
Think good where to spend it ;)


And Lastly
Would you like to add one last tip, or an inspirational message for other table tennis players looking to succeed?
There is always a solution,if you look hard enough for it, you will find it to reach your goal, no matter what the goal is.


Thank you Andrej!

Pride of Africa Takes the World By Storm: MHTT Interview with Quadri Aruna

Quadri Aruna has set the world stage on fire by making an enormous leap in the ITTF World Rankings in 2014. Following his stellar performances at the Commonwealth Games, Czech Open and World Cup he has leaped over 200 places to assert himself among the best players in the world. I had the pleasure of meeting him in Washington DC at the North American Teams, he is a true champion, humble and kind and I had the unique pleasure of interviewing him on his career.

Be sure to give your vote to Aruna for the ITTF Star Awards Best Male Player at www.ittfstarawards.com

Quadri Aruna in action in Glasgow

Full Name: Aruna Quadri Akiande
Age: 26
Date of Birth: 8/9/1988
Highest World Ranking: 30

Equipment Used:
Blade: Joola Rosskopf Emotion
FH Rubber: Joola Rhyzm-P
BH Rubber: Joola Rhyzm-P

How long have you been playing table tennis for? When and how did you start?

I started playing when I was 7 years old and it was just to have some fun on the street. After some years I improved and in 2000 I started playing tournaments in Lagos, Nigera.

Tell us a bit more about Table Tennis in Nigeria, the playing conditions and resources etc. Has it been difficult to try and develop into a professional player?

Table Tennis is a popular sport in Nigeria. The playing conditions are average, not as good as in Europe. Table Tennis is not getting enough resources in terms of funding and that is the main problem of taking table tennis to a higher level in Nigeria. The main priority is based on some sports and not others.

Taking the game to professional level in Nigeria is not easy because we don't have sponsors for tournaments or playing leagues but we pray that things get back to normal positions. Presently their is no local league in Nigeria.

You currently play league in Portugal, how is the competition level there and has this been a big step in developing your game?

The level in Portugal is moderate, not too low and not too high, but it's ok to keep myself busy throughout this season. I can say that I improved a lot in Portugal since I came here in 2010 and have continued to improve to this moment. I have good training partners in Portugal and with that I improved rapidly.

What is your biggest dream for your table tennis career?

My biggest dream is to be ranked top 10 in the world and winning several titles is another objective. I also hope to have an academy in the future, provided I can get

Aruna defeats Apologia at Czech Open

You had great success at the Commonwealth Games earlier this year where you beat Zhan Jian from Singapore who was the eventual Gold Medallist. How did you feel after winning that match?

Winning against Zhan Jian was my biggest win at that time in Glasgow and I was so happy then. I seriously believed that I had worked hard to this level and I believed that I deserved it.

You had a string of exceptional results starting with the Czech Open where you defeated Marc Duran, Alexey Liventsov, Alexander Shibaev and Tiago Apolonia. What do you think helped your level rise before that event?

Playing tournaments regularly helped a lot because the more I played the more I improved. I was lucky to get a little funding which helped me to play tournaments regularly and sometimes I had to put in my own money as well because the government is not helping the sport in Nigeria and the main priority is giving to Football.

You seem to be very comfortable with the new ball, how do you feel about competing with it so far?

I can say that no one is comfortable with the new ball and it is very different. It has less spin and it changes position. I really don't have any advantage with the new ball but I am the kind of player that doesn't care about changes much as we are all playing in the same conditions. I feel normal with the new ball the only real difference is the spin.

Post-Match Selfie of Aruna and Zhang Jike at 2014 World Cup

Congratulations on your results at the World Cup, what was your goal going into the competition?

My main goal before the World Cup was to qualify from the group stage which everyone sees as the main difficult, then after the group stage I said I believed going to quarterfinal because nothing is impossible in the knockout stages. My confidence worked really well for me and I played without fear and was relaxed throughout the tournament.

How did you feel about your performance against World Champion Zhang Jike? We saw a great fight by you to win 2 games, did you feel like you had a strong chance during the match?

Playing against Zhang Jike was a dream come true and I initially believed it was going to be 4-0. I won the first set easily with service and in the second set he easily corrected some of his mistakes which changed the game. After the first set my confidence increased and I believed I could win. I really gave my 100% best and I was just unfortunate to miss some easy balls which made me lose the match.

What is your big goal for 2015?

I want to retain my African Cup title and if possible surpass my World Cup record. I would love to be in the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals next year. Egypt has ruled Africa for years and by God's grace my target is to dethrone Egypt in the next African Games.

Playing in a better league is another objective and I think I stand a chance of playing in a better club next season. My aim is to play in France, Poland or Germany.

ITTF Shot of the Day (Day 2 World Cup 2014)

Aruna shows Zhang Jike some footwork skills

Off the Topic Questions

Favourite Food?
Nigerian food called Amala, which is made from dried Cassava

What do you do when you aren't playing table tennis?
I love to be on the internet when I am not practicing, I love listening to music and also playing Candy Crush is my second hobby after table tennis.

Dream Car?
I don't have a strong affinity for cars but I love different types of Toyota model.

Ideal Holiday Destination?
I always prefer to spend my holidays in Nigeria because there is no place like home.

First thing you would do if you won $1 million?
I would invest in different areas to ensure the money grows well. I would buy a nice house and a good car and be sure to take care of my parents very well with the money.

And Lastly...

Would you like to add one last tip, or inspirational message for other table tennis players looking to succeed?

They should believe in themselves all the time, they should be positive all the time and finally they should believe that nothing is impossible if they work harder towards it.

Hard work really pays a lot which might be difficult in the beginning.

Thank you so much for taking the time Aruna and good luck for 2015!

New Ball Prices are Extortionate

The new ball is finally spreading around the globe and one thing which has become apparent is the high prices. I recently heard that the price for a 3 pack of 3 star Butterfly plastic balls would be $10USD. That's over $3USD per ball. The Nittaku premium plastic balls also near that mark as well.

New 40+ ball pricing is insane

It is understandable that prices may be higher as companies adjust their production systems and techniques but these prices are insane for one table tennis ball. Couple the expensive pricing with the high rate of breakage and you have to wonder what the sport is coming to!

I recall when the ball was being introduced that one of the reasons for the change was the high cost of shipping celluloid balls as they were flammable and transportation had become more expensive. In all honesty I would rather pay $3 per ball to keep the old ones and cover the shipping costs than have to pay this much for a ball which may not even last an hour during practice. Before hitting us with such extortionate prices you would think they would at least do a lot more work on the quality and durability of the plastic balls.

How does everybody else feel about the match of price and quality for the new balls?

Should ITTF Legalise Boosting?

One of the hottest debates in table tennis is the moral argument of whether or not to boost. I personally don't boost and choose not to purely because it is the rule of the sport that boosting is not legal. In saying that I believe that boosting should be made legal for a few very simple reasons.

The New Ball

The new ball is designed to slow the game down, we all know that rubber manufacturers around the world are already doing their absolute best to combat the reduction in speed and spin by turning out generations of rubbers which are spinner and faster than ever before. We love this sport because of speed, we love it because of spin, so why reduce both? Why not allow booster so we can balance out longer rallies and still great speed, spin and control? We could avoid the frustrations of changing technique as much and having to deal with everything lagging. Of course this is not so important and is by no means the main reason why I think boosting should be legalized.

I do however believe that reducing speed and spin in the game has become a goal of the ITTF and this is the real reason why boosting is banned and not, in fact, the reason that it creates an unfair playing field as I will mention more below.

It's Not Harmful

Speed glue was originally banned because of it's VOC content which was deemed to be harmful, some clever individual decided to consume come of it for reasons unknown to any intelligent human being. Most boosters on the other hand are VOC free, hence why they are undetectable by the ITTF in racket testing. If they are not harmful then there is no real reason to ban them in that aspect.

It Creates An Unfair Playing Field

This is the ultimate reason why boosting should be legalised. Face it, the ITTF can't detect boosters and for that reason they are also unable to police it. They are wasting time and resources to try and crack down on something unimportant. They want people to stop boosting out of fairness for those who follow the rules. Easier solution. Legalise boosting. This way the people who want to follow the rules, like me, are not disadvantaged against people who don't care about the rule and boost. It is difficult to play against a Chinese player with a freshly boosted bat when you are back in the dinosaur ages with your slower water based glued rubbers. They have an uncanny ability to make your loops look like trash. Granted a good player will be able to do this anyway, but sometimes you can see quite clearly how boosted rubber is giving them the advantage in the game.

So the real question is which scenario creates more of an unfair playing field? Booster being illegal where the players who abide by the rules are at a disadvantage, or booster being legal where everyone has a fair chance to be on the same playing field by choice and disadvantage is only upon those who opt not to boost because they don't want to.

Why Do I Care About the Rule?

You might say, well if you think the rule against boosting is so unfair and since ITTF can't detect it then why don't you just join the masses and boost anyway? Well in my opinion rules are rules and I like to follow them and so do many others. This rule, as stupid as it is, is in place regardless and so I follow it.

So what is your opinion? Should boosters be legalised, is the rule sane or stupid? Are boosters just illegal so we have to constantly buy the latest upgraded rubber constantly as we had to with the new tensor rubbers to combat speed glue illegality and again now we need new rubber to combat the new ball?

Always interested to hear people's thoughts on the topic! :)

Was the New Ball More Entertaining?

The ITTF change to the new ball was meant to bring about more exciting rallies and longer points in table tennis. Rather than throw my own opinion in the mix again I want to throw out a small reflection on the men's and women's world cup events and hopefully get some feedback from you guys.

First of all it was said that the slower ball was meant to reduce Chinese dominance by slowing the game down. In both the men's and women's world cups we saw an all Chinese final, so any hopes of a change in ball ending China's reign at the top are a bit lost and to be fair we all know a new ball isn't going to be the saving grace for the rest of the world, so no surprises there.

In saying that we did see Zhang Jike and Li Xiaoxia challenged in the events. Jike dropped 2 sets to the man of the limelight, Quadri Aruna of Nigeria and also went all the way to 7 with Timo Boll. Li Xiaoxia had to battle through a 7 set match with Liu Jia of Austria. So what does that mean? Well for Boll it isn't the first time he has pushed Jike, also it appeared Xiaoxia was having quite a bit of trouble adapting to the new ball, especially after her one sided loss to Ding Ning in the final.

Were the points longer? There were some great points, you can see below the DHS Top 10 video from the Men's World Cup. There were decent rallies in a lot of the matches but also lots of easy errors and some matches which were bordering on disappointing. It is important to focus on the good points as we can expect the errors to be reduced as players get used to the new ball. How did you feel the quality of the rallies stacked up in comparison to World Majors from previous years? Worse, the same or better?

Aside from interesting points there were some intruiging results. Kamal pushed Ovtcharov to 7, Boll decimated Dima in straight games, as did Apolonia to his teammate Marcos Freitas. We saw Georgina Pota and her old school style go down 4-3 against Kasumi Ishikawa in the bronze medal match. Quadri Aruna of course cleared his group stage by defeating Shibaev and Kenta Matsudaira, carrying on to beat Tang Peng in the first round before losing in 6 to Jike. The results were exciting, the matches were just as exciting in terms of their intensity and uncertain nature.

Let's not also forget we were treated to an outstanding men's final a full driven 7 set duel between Ma Long and Zhang Jike, where the Grand Slam Champion asserted his dominance of the past few years to take the crown again. Can't complain about that match! :)

Essentially we saw some less expected players thrive and some fair not so well, this is to be expected. The outlook is uncertain but I think it can only go up from here as the players start to get a handle on the new ball and develop ideas and feeling for it.

Would love to get as much feedback as possible on this one! :)