Zoltán Berczik (7 August 1937 – 11 January 2011) was a
Hungarian 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. In the late fifties he was ranked among the best European table tennis players and won, with his athletic play, the first two titles at the
Table Tennis European Championships
The European Table Tennis Championships is an international table tennis competition for the national teams of the member associations of the European Table Tennis Union (ETTU). First held in 1958, the ETTU organised the European Championships ever ...
.
Berczik was born in
Novi Sad
Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; hu, Újvidék, ; german: Neusatz; see below for other names) is the second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pan ...
. He began his career as a defensive player. With the advent of topspin in the late 1950s he turned his game around to attack. He died in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
.
National success
He won the Hungarian championship in single continuously from 1959 to 1964. He won the double competition in 1959 with
László Földy, in 1960 and 1961 with
Ferenc Sido, in 1962
Miklós Péterfy
Miklós Péterfy is a male former international table tennis player from Hungary.
Table tennis career
He won two medals at the World Table Tennis Championships from 1957 to 1961.
He won a silver medal in the Swaythling Cup (team event) at the ...
, in 1963 with
János Faházi
János Faházi (born 23 April 1942) is a retired Hungarian international table tennis player.
Table tennis career
He won a bronze medal in the mixed doubles with Éva Kóczián at the 1963 World Table Tennis Championships. The same years he ...
and 1967 with
István Jony
István () is a Hungarian language equivalent of the name Stephen or Stefan. It may refer to:
People with the given name Nobles, palatines and judges royal
* Stephen I of Hungary (c. 975–1038), last grand prince of the Hungarians and first ki ...
. In mixed doubles he won in 1960 with
Gizella Farkas
Gizella 'Gizi' Farkas (18 November 1925 in Miskolc – 17 June 1996 in Vienna) was a female international table tennis player from Hungary.
Table tennis career
From 1947 to 1960 she won many medals in singles, doubles, and team events in the Tab ...
and
Éva Kóczián
Éva Kóczián, later Kóczián-Földy (born May 25, 1936 in Budapest) is a former female international table tennis player from Hungary.
Table tennis career
She won twelve medals in singles, doubles, and team events in the World Table Tennis Ch ...
in 1967.
He won the team championships in 1957, 1958, 1959, 1962 and 1964 with the club Vasútépítő Törekvés and in 1965, 1966, 1967 and 1969 with Bp. Vasutas SC.
World Championships
Berczik took part in World Cups five times: in 1957 he secured the silver medal with the Hungarian team. This happened again at the World Cup in 1959, where he also won the bronze medal in doubles with
László Földy and mixed with
Gizi Farkas. At the World Cup in 1961, he was third with the team and runner-up in doubles with Ferenc Sido. In 1963 and 1965 he won no medals.
European Championships
At the Youth European Championship in 1955 in Stuttgart, he arrived in final in doubles, where he lost.
He achieved his greatest success at the European Championships in 1958 and 1960. Here he became European champion both in single and with the Hungarian team. In 1958 he won the Mixed with
Gizi Farkas-Lantos, in 1960 the double competition with
Ferenc Sidó
Ferenc Sidó (18 April 1923 in Pata – 6 February 1998 in Budapest) was an ethnic Hungarian international table tennis player from Slovakia.
Table tennis career
From 1947 to 1961 he won 26 medals in singles, doubles, and team events in the Wor ...
. In 1964 he reached the final of the individual, which he lost to
Kjell Johansson, and semi-finals in doubles.
Trainer and author
From 1969 he served as coach for the Hungarian national team. After a stay in Japan in 1985, he coached Budapest Vasutas SC. In the 1990s he wrote a series of articles for coaches on the table tennis tactics:
* 1992: Tactics (2): establishment of tactics for a match
* 1992: Tactics (3): The tactics of the offensive player
* 1993: Tactics (5): Exercises for offensive players
* 1993: Tactics (6): Exercises for offensive players
* 1994: Tactics (7)
* 1994: Tactics (8)
Berczik ended his coaching career in 1996.
[Zeitschrift DTS, 1996/10, S. 28]
See also
*
List of table tennis players
This list of table tennis players is alphabetically ordered by surname. The main source of the information included in this page is the official International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) database. More detailed information about their careers is ...
*
List of World Table Tennis Championships medalists
Results of individual events
The tables below are medalists of individual events (men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles and mixed).
Men's singles
Medal table
Women's singles
The champion of women's singles in 1937 was declared ...
References
External links
ITTF stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berczik, Zoltan
1937 births
2011 deaths
Hungarian male table tennis players