Dang Qiu (Chinese: 邱党; pinyin: Qiū Dǎng; born 29 October 1996) is a German professional table tennis player. He is the first German-born national player playing the penhold grip style, in particular the modern two-sided penhold grip which allows him to play the reverse penhold backhand. In 2022 and at his first participation of a European Table Tennis Championships, he won the men's single title on first attempt.
Career
In June 2022, Qiu defeated Dimitrij Ovtcharov in seven games at the WTT Contender in Lima.[5] The victory helped him reach world No. 10 in the ITTF world ranking.[6] In August 2022, Qiu defeated Darko Jorgic 4–1 in the European Table Tennis Championships Finals.[7] As the top-ranked player in German team, Qiu help the team advance to the final of 2022 World Team Championships later in October and winning the silver medal.[8][9] On national level, he won the men's singles titles of the German National Table Tennis Championships in 2022 and 2023.
At the European Games 2023 in Kraków, he won the men's teams and mixed doubles titles (with Nina Mittelham), the latter qualified him for the mixed doubles competition at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
At the Europe Top 16 Cup in Montreux, Qiu won the men's single silver medal, this time losing to Darko Jorgic in the finals. He reached the men's singles semi-finals at the WTT Contender Lima 2023 and WTT Champions Chongqing 2024.[10][11]
Personal life
Qiu was born in Nürtingen, Germany in a family of Chinese descent.[2][12] He comes from a family of table tennis enthusiasts.[13] His parents were table tennis players trained in Jiangsu, China and moved to Germany in the 1990s.[12] Dang's father, named Jianxin Qiu (Chinese: 邱建新; pinyin: Qiū Jiàn Xīn) started to coach in Japan in 1997. Dang's older brother, named Liang Qiu (Chinese: 邱梁; pinyin: Qiū Liáng) is also a table tennis player in Germany.[14]
