Werner Schlager

Werner Schlager, born on 28 September 1972 in Wiener Neustadt, is an Austrian table tennis player and former world champion. He began playing at the age of six, learning from his father Rudolph and his brother Harald, who were also leading Austrian players. In 2003 he won the singles title at the World Championships in Paris, beating South Korea's Joo Se-hyuk in the final after beating Wang Liqin and Kong Linghui in earlier rounds, and became the first Austrian world singles champion since Richard Bergmann in 1937. That year he was voted Austrian Sportsman of the Year. He was known for his serve and receive, and in 2009 he founded the Werner Schlager Academy in Schwechat near Vienna.