Andrew Baggaley

Andrew Baggaley (born 26 February 1983) is a professional table tennis player from Milton Keynes. He is England's leading table tennis medal winner of all time in the Commonwealth Games, winning two gold medals in Manchester, England (2002), 1 silver medal in Melbourne, Australia (2006), 1 silver and 1 bronze medal in Delhi, India (2010) and 1 silver in Glasgow, Great Britain.[1][2]

Not to be confused with Andrew Baggarly (American journalist) and Andrew Baddeley(British middle-distance runner).

Andrew Baggaley
Andrew Baggaley playing for DKV Borges
Personal information
Nationality England
ResidenceMilton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England
Born (1983-02-26) 26 February 1983
Height1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight75 kg (165 lb; 11.8 st)
Table tennis career
Playing styleShakehand grip
Medal record
Commonwealth Games
Gold medal – first place 2002 Manchester Men's Team
Gold medal – first place 2002 Manchester Men's Doubles
Silver medal – second place 2006 Melbourne Men's Doubles
Silver medal – second place 2010 Delhi Men's Team
Silver medal – second place 2014 Glasgow Men's Team
Bronze medal – third place 2010 Delhi Men's Doubles
World Championship of Ping Pong
Gold medal – first place 2015 London Singles
Gold medal – first place 2016 London Singles
Gold medal – first place 2019 London Singles
Gold medal – first place 2020 London Singles

He is also World Champion 2015 of Ping Pong, after beating reigning champion Maxim Shmyrev in the semi-final and Alexander Fleming in the final. He also won the World Championship of Ping Pong in 2016,[3] 2019, beating three previous champions on his way to the trophy,[4] and 2020.

Baggaley was born in Northampton. He started playing the sport with his mother Yvonne in the back garden of the family home in Milton Keynes in the Summer of 1987 aged 4 and has been coached almost exclusively by his brother Stephen Baggaley throughout his career.

He is a triple English Men’s Singles National Champion by winning the senior title in Sheffield in 2002, 2008 and 2010.[5]

At the time, his 2002 victory aged just 19 was the youngest winner of the Men’s Singles National Title for 40 years and he is still only one of 3 teenage winners of the title.

He also became the youngest ever British Men’s Singles Champion aged 15 when he won the British Home Countries Title in Oban, Scotland (1998).

Andrew Baggaley became Britain’s youngest ever professional table tennis player by signing terms to play for Brussels-based Belgian National League team TTC Logis Auderghem aged 13 (1996). He has subsequently played in national leagues across Europe including Germany, Sweden and Spain.

Andrew Baggaley made his England Junior International début aged 12 in the European Cadet (Under 14) Six Nations Championships in Soham (1995), and went on to win European Youth Medals at both Cadet and Junior (Under 17) categories; England’s first medals at these prestigious events for almost a decade alongside the likes of David Melder.

He made his England Senior International début at the French Open in 1997 aged 14 and also represented England at the 44th World Table Tennis Championships in Manchester, England later that year.

Baggaley has won 23 English National Junior titles and has been ranked England number 1 in every age group (Under 10,11,12,14,17,21) culminating in becoming England number 1 senior aged 20 (2003), the youngest at the time for 20 years.

Baggaley has defeated many world-class players from both Europe and Asia including victories over Peter Karlsson (Sweden) and Jean-Michel Saive (Belgium) both former European Singles Champion, Chiang Peng-Lung (Chinese Taipei) the former Asian Singles Champion, Gao Ning (Singapore) the Asian Cup champion and Jörgen Persson (Sweden) the 1991 World Champion.

In November 2011 Andrew Baggaley officially became the highest-ranked British player on the ITTF ranking list with a World Ranking of 142.[6]

Andrew Baggaley was the Table Tennis motion capture actor for the Xbox 360 game Kinect Sports.[7]

He was a Bid Ambassador for the London 2012 Olympics where he was selected to play in the Team GB Table Tennis team.[8]

See also

References
  1. "London Games the new target for Baggaley". Milton Keynes Citizen. 24 November 2010. Retrieved 24 November 2010.
  2. "Glasgow 2014: England men take silver after losing to Singapore". BBC Sport. 28 July 2014.
  3. "Baggaley is new king of Ping". World Championship of Ping Pong. 30 January 2015. Archived from the original on 29 January 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
  4. "Andrew Baggaley wins BetVictor World Championship of Ping Pong". Sky Sports. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  5. "Baggaley completes an historic hat-trick". Milton Keynes Citizen. 11 March 2010. Archived from the original on 15 March 2010. Retrieved 21 March 2010.
  6. "ITTF November 2011 World Ranking list" (PDF). ITTF. 1 November 2011. Retrieved 7 November 2011.
  7. "He's got the motion". Rare. 15 March 2011. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
  8. "Baggaley closes in on Olympic target". Milton Keynes Citizen. 22 July 2010. Retrieved 27 July 2010.
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