Michael Maze (born 1 September 1981) is a professional

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

player from

Faxe Faxe or Fakse is a town on the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark. It is located in Faxe Municipality in Region Zealand. The town is most known for the Faxe Brewery, Royal Unibrew, a relatively large brewery producing a range of beer and soft ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

, in men's singles and doubles. In 2005 he was one of the top five

left-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

players in the world. His strength was in his strong forehand loop and lobbing. He was one of the best defensive lobbers in the world. His strong forehand loop, his forehand pendulum serve, and his confident defensive play away from the table made him a solid all-around player. He competed at four Olympic Games.

Career

Maze won the European Junior Championships in both singles and doubles in 1999. He reached the quarterfinals in the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

for seniors in both series in 2003 playing doubles with

Finn Tugwell Finn Tugwell (born 18 March 1976) is a Danish table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a tabl ...

. Tugwell and Maze participated as partners at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

where they reached the round of 16. Before the 2004 Summer Olympics, Maze won the

Europe Top-12 The Europe Top 16, also known as the Europe Top 16 Cup and previously known as the Europe Top 12, is a table tennis tournament organised annually by the European Table Tennis Union (ETTU), featuring the highest-ranked players in Europe. History ...

tournament in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

in February 2004. He participated both in men's singles and men's doubles in the

2004 Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

. Maze lost his first match in singles but won bronze with his partner

. Another of Maze's achievements was reaching the semifinals of the 2005 World Championships that took place in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, in which he was defeated by the home favorite, Ma Lin, in a swift 4–0 match. Nevertheless, he had managed to put up a memorable performance in the quarterfinals of the competition, coming back from a 3–0 deficit to win 4–3 against another Chinese player,

Hao Shuai Hao Shuai (born October 1, 1983 in Tianjin) is a Chinese table tennis player. Career records Singles (as of May 13, 2010) *World Championships: QF (2005, 2007). * Pro Tour winner (3): Serbian Open 2007. China (Shanghai) Open 2008. Slovenian Op ...

, saving 3 match points, as well as a win in the previous match against 2004 Olympics Men's singles silver medallist Wang Hao, again from the host nation. Michael Maze won the prize "BT Gold" as the biggest Danish sportsperson in 2005. Michael Maze won European bronze in singles in 2007. In 2009, Maze had reached the quarterfinals of 2009 World Table Tennis Championships, held in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. He was the only

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an player to achieve the quarters, beating

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

player

Panagiotis Gionis Panagiotis Gionis (born 7 January 1980) is a Greek table tennis player and a dentist. He is a member in the Greece National Team and has competed in 4 Olympics and many World and European Championships. He has been playing professionally in Germa ...

at last 16 Round. On 20 September 2009 he defeated

Werner Schlager Werner Schlager (born September 28, 1972 in Wiener Neustadt, Austria) is a table tennis player and former world champion from Austria. Career Schlager began playing table tennis when he was six years old, learning from his father, Rudolph Schl ...

in the final of the

held in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

after defeating the German favorite

Timo Boll Timo Boll (, ; born 8 March 1981) is a German professional table tennis player, who currently plays for Borussia Düsseldorf. He is ranked second in the German Table Tennis National League, and fifteen in the ITTF world rankings as of October 20 ...

in the semis. Maze (representing

) was defeated during the

2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

Dimitrij Ovtcharov Dimitrij Ovtcharov (russian: Дмитрий Овчаров) or Dmytro Ovtcharov ( uk, Дмитро Овчаров; born 2 September 1988) is a Ukrainian-born German table tennis player. His father Mikhail (or Mikhaylo), a Soviet table tennis cha ...

(representing

) in the Men's Singles Quarter Final. His coach is the former Chinese National Team Coach Hu Wei Xin. On 14 March 2016, Michael Maze announced the end of his Table Tennis career. He was hoping to compete at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. Maze announced his retirement in 2016, saying "after several operations I can no longer train one hundred per cent without pain and therefore not compete at the level I’m used to." In February 2018, Maze announced his return to competitive sport.

References

External links

Michael Maze's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maze, Michael 1981 births Living people Danish male table tennis players Olympic table tennis players of Denmark Olympic bronze medalists for Denmark People from Faxe Municipality Table tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in table tennis Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics World Table Tennis Championships medalists Sportspeople from Region Zealand 21st-century Danish people