On March 1, 2018, Timo Boll (1981) was ranked number one on the ITTF World Ranking for the third time in his career (previous number one rankings were in 2003 and 2011). Considered the most successful German table tennis player of all time as well as the fairest, at 37, Timo is now the oldest number one player in the world. He easily eclipses the previous record of the legendary Swedish Champion Jan-Ove Waldner, who was 32 years when he was last world number one in October 1997. No other European player has won as many European championships: six in Men's Singles alone. After consecutively defeating the three best Chinese players at the World Cup 2005, Timo is considered to be the most dangerous opponent for the Chinese aces up to now. At the World Cup 2017 he could prove his outstanding qualities by beating the two best Chinese players. Without a doubt, Timo is a legend in men's table tennis history. Bernd-Ulrich Gro (1957) has been a table tennis coach for over 40 years.

He has written six books and more than 300 professional articles about teaching and practicing table tennis. His book Table Tennis Tips, appearing since 2015 under the 6th edition's title Table Tennis Basics, has become a standard work on table-tennis technique and learning table tennis. He held teaching positions for table tennis in Aachen, Germany (RWTH University), and Cologne (German Sport University). He retired from his full-time work in table tennis in 2001 and has been teaching PE and French at an Aachen high school ever since.