Miklos Szabados

Miklos Szabados (b. March 7, 1912, in Budapest, Hungary; d. Feb. 12, 1962, in Sydney, Australia) was a Hungarian and Australian table tennis player.

Szabados won 15 World Championship titles, including the World Singles crown in 1931.

Table tennis career

Szabados was one of the two most successful table tennis players of his time, the other being Viktor Barna.

After receiving a table tennis set from his mother for his 13th birthday,he developed a passion for the game. He won his first major tournament in Hungary in 1927.

From 1928 to 1935, Szabados captured six World Doubles titles (1929-32 and 1934-35 with Barna), three Mixed Doubles (1930, 1931, and 1934 with M. Mednyanszky), and five times was a member of the Hungarian World Championship (Swaythling Cup) Team (1929-31, 1934, and 1935). In 1931, he won all four World events — men’s Singles, Doubles, Mixed Doubles, and the Swaythling Cup.

He began studying engineering at the University of Berlin, but, being of Jewish descent, fled to Paris in 1933, and then Britain in 1936.

In 1937, Szabados and countryman Istvan Kelen embarked on a two-year exhibition tour of the Far East and South America, eventually settling in Australia. Sponsored by the New South Wales Table Tennis Association, they competed in the Australian championships in Sydney. The Hungarian pair won every match: Szabados defeated Kelen in four sets in the singles title, and they won the doubles in straight sets.

Returning to Australia in 1939, Szabados settled in Sydney. By 1941 he owned a table tennis club. He was called up by the Allied Works Council and served as a mess orderly at Alice Springs, Northern Territory, in 1943-44.

He won the Australian Table Tennis Championship in singles (1950 and 1952), doubles (1950) and mixed doubles (1955).

Operating table tennis academies, he was prominent in coaching younger players. Two of his protégés became Australian singles champions — Cliff McDonald (1959, 1964 and 1966) and Michael Wilcox (1963 and 1967). He also played matches with celebrities such as the tennis player Bobby Riggs (1948) and the concert pianist Julius Katchen (1955).

tyle of play

Szabados was strong and muscular. He had clever footwork, good defense, a fierce forehand, and an effective long game. He developed his own unique stroke, a backhand forehand (hitting with a backhand action on the forehand side). He attributed his success to hard work and concentration.

Hall of Fame

Szabados, who was Jewish, was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1987.

Szabados was inducted into the International Table Tennis Foundation Hall of Fame in 1993. [http://www.ittf.com/museum/HallofFame.pdf]

External links

* [http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:NNzOyEPE2wkJ:www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A160430b.htm+SZABADOS,+Miklos&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us Australian Dictionary of Biography bio]
* [http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/MiklosSzabados.htm Jewish Sports bio]