Michael Maze (born 1 September 1981) is a professionaltable tennis player fromFaxe,Denmark,[1] in men's singles and doubles. In 2005 he was one of the top fiveleft-handed 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.[3]
World ranking positions of Michael Maze since 2001
Maze won theEuropean Junior Championships in both singles and doubles in 1999.[4] He reached the quarterfinals in theEuropean Championships for seniors in both series in 2003 playing doubles withFinn Tugwell. Tugwell and Maze participated as partners at the2000 Summer Olympics where they reached the round of 16. Before the 2004 Summer Olympics, Maze won theEurope Top-12 tournament inFrankfurt am Main in February 2004. He participated both in men's singles and men's doubles in the2004 Olympics. Maze lost his first match in singles but won bronze with his partnerFinn Tugwell.[5]
Another of Maze's achievements was reaching the semifinals of the2005 World Championships that took place inShanghai,China, 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, saving 3 match points, as well as a win in the previous match against 2004 Olympics Men's singles silver medallistWang Hao, again from the host nation. Michael Maze won the prize "BT Gold" as the biggest Danish sportsperson in 2005.[citation needed]
On 14 March 2016, Michael Maze announced the end of his Table Tennis career.[7] He was hoping to compete at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics.[citation needed]
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."[8]
In February 2018, Maze announced his return to competitive sport.[9]
Denmark
