The 10 Tallest Table Tennis Players Currently Playing

It is usually very entertaining to watch tall table tennis players play the sport.

They are usually powerful players who hit the ball with amazing power, but at the same time, they have long arms that allow them to reach balls that other players cannot, giving them an advantage when on the back foot. Is being tall a massive advantage in table tennis? Well, it certainly can be for the 10 players in this list.

The player that immediately comes to mind is Vladimir Samsonov. However, the Belarusian legend didn’t make the cut, as the players on this list are even taller than him (1.89cm – 6’2”).

We’ve compiled a top 10 list of the tallest players on tour. 

It should be noted that we have only included players whose height we know precisely. There may be taller players on the circuit whose height we don’t know, so this is essentially a list of the tallest players within the top 300 places in the ITTF. Let’s begin!

10-11) Patrick Franziska and Luka Mladenovic (190 cm – 6’2¾’’)

Tied for 10th, we have included two great players with incredibly contrasting styles.

Patrick doesn’t need an introduction. If you watch table tennis, you know how good of a player he is. His shot quality is incredible, and he’s beaten some of the very top Chinese players such as Xu Xin. In case you don’t know him, we’ll go over his accomplishments briefly.

This strong player is part of the German table tennis team. He won a bronze medal in the men’s singles event of the 2018 European Championships and he was also an Olympic silver medallist in the men’s team event in Tokyo 2020.

His best ranking was 12th in the world. When he’s on form, though, he can beat anyone in the circuit, and he’s proven it time and time again. He’s also won the Bundesliga 3 times, he’s a 7-time European champion, and he has won 10 ITTF doubles tournaments.

As for Luka, he is not such a well-known player, but he is also incredibly talented. Despite not being among the absolute elite of the sport, Luka is famous among antispin players, as he is the best anti-spin rubber player in the world.

In this video, you can see the interesting style of the Luxembourger. Luka is still a young and rising player, so we expect to see a lot more from this great prospect. Without a doubt, his style is the future of anti!

Luka has 4 gold medals in the Luxembourg national championships and won the 2. Bundesliga twice with his team, FSV Mainz 05. His best ITTF ranking is 158th, achieved in February 2019.

8-9) Benedek Olah and Kirill Skachkov (191 cm – 6’3¼’’) 

In the 8th and 9th places, we have two national icons from their respective countries. We are talking about the legends of the Finnish and the Russian national team, Benedek Olah and Kirill Skachkov.

Fortunately, I was able to find a video of these two legends going at it. Doesn’t the table look smaller?

Since Benedek won the match, we’ll start with him. Benedek Olah is the best Finnish player, and he’s won a Finnish national tournament a total of 26 times (yes, you read that right). 

He won the men’s singles event 10 times, with the other 16 wins spread across the men’s doubles and mixed doubles events.

A world-class player, Benedek also enjoyed a lot of success in the European leagues and his highest world ranking was 50th place, which he reached in June 2022. He reached this level by hitting the ball incredibly hard. 

Here’s a great game between Benedek and Otto Tennila, whom you may know from the Pongfinity channel!

Kirill is no less than Benedek, though. The Russian icon won the Russian championship 7 times and represented Russia internationally in practically all the events that he could, having participated in two Olympic games.

His best ranking was 29th in the world in January 2012. In his prime, Kirill was one of the best players in the world, and he’s still a great player by any means. He has managed to stay relevant over the years and he played in the Tokyo Olympics at 33 years old.

In addition, Donic crafted an excellent blade in his name, the Donic Skachkov Carbon, which quickly became a best seller due to its high quality and reasonable price.

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5/6/7) Pavel Sirucek, Fan Bo Meng, and Lubomir Jancarik (193 cm – 6’4’’)

Positions 5, 6, and 7 are shared by 3 players: Pavel Sirucek, Fan Bo Meng, and Lubomir Jancarik.

All 3 of them are of very high stature, and their level is equally as high. 

I was able to find a very good Bundesliga match between Lubomir Jancarik and Fan Bo Meng. As we progress through the rankings, the table size seems to get smaller and smaller!

If we start with Pavel Sirucek, he is probably the best player in the Czech Republic. Pavel represented his country at the 2020 Olympics, and his best world ranking was 44.

In his record, Pavel Sirucek has 7 Czech national championships, 4 times in doubles and 3 times in singles, and he won the Czech Extraliga and Polish Superliga 2 times each.

He’s undoubtedly a player of the highest level. In the 2020 Hungarian Open, he went up against another very tall player that we all know. This player wasn’t tall enough to reach this ranking, though, since he is “only” 186 cm tall, Dima Ovtcharov!

As for Lubomir Jankaric, the Czech 2-time Olympiad reached his personal best ranking of 66th in June 2016, and he’s almost always in the final stages of all European tournaments.

However, the player with the best potential at this height is Fan Bo Meng, without a doubt.

The young player, born in the year 2000, is a great prospect who has been playing in the Bundesliga as the star player of his team, TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell.

Furthermore, he has already achieved immense victories over very good players in the league, such as the German legend, Timo Boll. To beat these players at such a young age is an amazing feat to accomplish.

Without a doubt, the player with the greatest future on this list is Fan Bo Meng. The young player is undoubtedly going to have a long and successful career.

4) Alexander Shibaev (194 cm – 6’4½’’)  

The fourth tallest player in the world is the Russian Alexander Shibaev.

In addition to being very tall, Alexander knows how to use his physique to its full potential. Shibaev is an offensive player with a tremendous ability to balance attacks and blocks.

This was what led him to represent Russia in lots of international tournaments, winning two silver and two bronze medals at the European Table Tennis Championships.

His highest ranking was 21st in the world, one of the best players in the world at the time. This enabled him to participate in two Olympic Games, in 2012 and 2016.

Here is one of his most legendary matches, the Europe Top 16 semi-final against none other than Simon Gauzy.

3) Steffen Mengel (195 cm – 6’4¾’’)

The third tallest player on the tour is German icon, Steffen Mengel.

Steffen has had a successful career in the European leagues and on the ITTF circuit, and he’s still adding trophies and medals to his cabinet. He is a player with a long and prosperous career, having won countless medals.

In addition, he had the honor of representing Germany, one of the most difficult teams to make the cut. He finished second at the Tokyo World Table Tennis Championships in 2014 and came second again in the European Championships that same year.

Without a doubt, his greatest achievement in individual terms was winning one of the hardest tournaments in the whole tour: the German National Championships. He was the 2013 men’s singles champion.

Mengel is undoubtedly a formidable player, and his highest ITTF ranking was 25th, which he obtained in 2015.

In this tight match against Timo Boll we can not only see his level but also his incredible stature:

2) Omar Assar (196 cm – 6’5¼’’) 

The second tallest player on the circuit comes from Africa, for a change. Omar is the only player on this list who does not come from the European continent. 

In addition, he is the second highest ranking player on this list, 4 places behind Franziska, having peaked at 16th in the world in January 2018. 

Omar is a relentless offensive player, with incredible physical strength, weighing in at 93 kilos (205lbs). His record is outstanding, there are very few things that Omar has not achieved.

Omar enjoyed and continues to enjoy both continental and international success. He was African champion a total of 13 times (and counting), 3 of which were in the men’s singles event. He also won 4 ITTF tour events.

As if that were not enough, Omar participated in the Olympic Games in 2012, 2016, 2020 and everything indicates that he’ll also participate in 2024. He would be only 32 years old in his fourth Olympic Game since he played his first Olympics at 20 years old.

Not only did he partake in the Olympics, but he also did exceptionally, as he finished 5th in the Tokyo 2020 men’s singles event, an incredible feat considering the best athletes in the world were participating.

Here’s one of the best wins of his career in July 2022, when he beat Tomokazu Harimoto.

Due to his enormous success, Butterfly released his very own blade, the Butterfly Omar Assar.

1) Tomislav Pucar (197 cm – 6’5½‘’)

The tallest table tennis player is Tomislav Pucar, standing at 197 cm – 6’5½”.

At nearly 2 meters tall, the Croatian player is the tallest player on the ITTF circuit today.

He’s not only tall, but he is also a great player. Tomislav reached the 30th place in the world in March 2020, and his fine career continues to flourish today.

And here’s the match we’ve all been waiting for! 

The two tallest table tennis players in the circuit went at it in the Champions League. Did Pucar use his 1cm advantage to win the match, or was the “shorter” Assar too agile for him? I can assure you this match is very entertaining and high-quality!

Tomislav’s best result to date is having won the European Under-21 Championships 2017. In addition, he is an Olympiad, having competed in Tokyo 2020. His best result in the Olympics table tennis event was reaching 9th place with his country.

Another great result for Tomislav Pucar was coming third at the 2019 European Games in Minsk, in the men’s singles category.

Who’s the tallest female table tennis player?

As for women, we don’t have as much data as we do for men. It’s truly a shame. This is because women’s table tennis does not have the same following as men’s, but luckily, this has been changing in recent years.

With the little data we have today, we can say that the tallest player on the circuit is Sofia Polcanova. We only have data on around 50 players, among which Sofia is the tallest at 180cm (5’11”).

The great Austrian player has already participated in two Olympic Games and her highest ITTF ranking is 13th.

Sofia Polcanova has a great backhand, which she was able to use to beat Suthasini Sawettabut in a beautiful match at the Singapore Smash 2022 edition.

Honorable mentions

If you were wondering why your favorite athlete wasn’t on the list, they probably weren’t tall enough. The following players are tall, world-class players or even legends of the sport that are very tall but didn’t make the cut:

• Vladimir Samsonov – 189 cm / 6’2½‘’ 
• Mattias Falck – 188 cm / 6’2’’
• Dimitrij Ovtcharov – 186 cm / 6’1¼’’ 
• Timo Boll – 181 cm / 5’11¼‘’
• Hugo Calderano – 182 cm / 5’11½‘’
• Liam Pitchford – 183 cm / 6’
• Tiago Apolonia – 186 cm / 6’1¼’’ 
• Darko Jorgic – 182 cm / 5’11½‘’
• Benedikt Duda – 189 cm / 6’2½‘’ 
• Alexis Lebrun – 188 cm / 6’2’’