Alojzy Ehrlich
| Alojzy Ehrlich | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 A portrait of Alojzy "Alex" Ehrlich | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Aloizy Ehrlich | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality |  Poland | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 1 January 1914 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 7 December 1992 (aged 78) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Alojzy "Alex" Ehrlich (1 January 1914 – 7 December 1992), also called "King of the Chiselers," was a Polish table tennis player, widely regarded as one of the best players in Polish history of this sport,[1] who three times won silver in the World Championships.[2]
Ehrlich was ranked world No. 6 in 1938 by Hon. Ivor Montagu and world No. 9 in 1950.[3]
He was a very popular athlete in
Early years
Ehrlich was born in 1914 in the village of
Together with Hasmonea, he won first team championships of Poland (Lwow, 1933), and became the top player of the country. In 1934 Erlich and another player from Lwow,
In the early 1930s, Ehrlich, who spoke eight languages,[6] moved to France, but remained loyal to Poland and represented his native land in subsequent tournaments.[1]
Record-breaking exchange
During the 1936
World War II and late years
During
After the war, he settled in
In the Irish Open he beat Johnny Leach in straight sets, shortly after Leach had won his first World Singles Title. For the previous 6 weeks, Erlich had been coaching Irish players, from beginners to the National Team, and must have been sorely out of top class practice. After coaching sessions, for practice, he would play his unofficial assistant Zerrick Woolfson of Dublin, giving him 12 points start. He told Woolfson that he gave the National Team members 10 points.
His victory over Leach was highly gratifying to him, since he had not been able to get sponsorship from any country, and was therefore not allowed to partake in the World Championships. He was about 35 years old at this time, and considered long past his best. During this period he was also developing a sports business partnership with French Champion Amouretti.
After finishing his career, Ehrlich became a coach, also developing a table tennis robot, which was presented by him in 1964 in Malmö, Sweden.[10] Furthermore, Ehrlich was the one who introduced military fitness drills, based on backward hops down long staircases.[11] In the French Riviera, he opened a holiday center with table tennis training facilities.
He died in a hospital in the Paris suburb of Saint Denis on 7 December 1992.
References
- ^ a b (in Polish) [1][permanent dead link]
- ^ "ITTF_Database". Archived from the original on 2012-10-16. Retrieved 2011-05-10.
- ^ André Damman. "History of ITTF Rankings 1926-1986" (PDF). ittf.com. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
- ^ (in Polish) [2] Archived 2007-10-30 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ (19 May 2007) Table tennis facts you need to know
- ^ a b Tim Boggan (2003) History of U.S. Table Tennis Vol II
- ^ a b c (21 July 2002) They also serve
- ^ János, Fehér (15 October 2017). "A vb-meccs, amit otthagytak a nézők, de még a bíró is".
- ^ (21 April 2007) A quietly intriguing column from QI. This week: Table tennis[dead link]
- ^ (in German) [3] Archived 2008-09-22 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Brian Cazeneuve. Spin Doctors
External links
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| National | |
