Hugo Calderano

Hugo Marinho Borges Calderano (born 22 June 1996, in Rio de Janeiro) is a table tennis player from Brazil.

In January 2022, he peaked at number 3 in the world rankings, becoming the greatest Americas player of all time.

He is the first-ever player from Latin America to reach the Top 10 of the ITTF World Rankings.

Calderano participated in the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, where he reached the round of 16, a feat that only Hugo Hoyama, a Brazilian legend in the sport, had achieved for Brazil, in Atlanta-1996.

Calderano thus finished 9th in the competition.

In 2010, at the age of 14, he was South American and Latin American Children's Champion.

In 2011, at the age of 15, he was Brazilian Youth Champion, Latin American Children's Champion, in Peru, individually and in teams; and Champion of the Argentine Open Youth in individual, team and doubles.

In 2012, at the age of 16, he won an individual bronze medal at the World Cadet Challenge in Puerto Rico; he was South American Youth Champion, in individual, teams and doubles; and champion in youth open competitions in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Poland.

In 2013, at the age of 17, he was the youngest table tennis player to win a stage of the World Tour and the first to win stages of the Youth and Adult World Tour in the same year.

He won an individual silver medal at the Polish Youth Open, was Champion of the Brazilian Open Adult in individual, and Champion of the Brazilian Open Youth in individual and team.

In 2014, at the age of 18, he had his first Olympic experience, obtaining bronze at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.

He was also a silver medalist in the ITTF Grand Finals under-21 tournament, Japan Open under-21 Champion, Brazilian Adult Singles Champion and Latin American Adult Champion.

From 2014 to 2021, Hugo played for the Ochsenhausen team, in the first division of the German Bundesliga.

In 2015, he won two gold medals at the Pan American Games, in the individual and team events.

He was also a Latin American individual and team champion, and a silver medalist in the Qatar Open doubles tournament.

He participated in the 2015 World Table Tennis Championships, losing in the 2nd round.

In 2016, Calderano was Latin American Champion in individual and team competitions; Champion of the Latin American Table Tennis Cup, in Guatemala; Kuwait Open under-21 champion; Austrian Open singles silver medal and Swedish Open doubles tournament champion.

In October 2016, Calderano, 31st in the world rankings, lost in the round of 16 of the World Cup, in Saarbrücken, Germany, 4-0 (11/8, 11/5, 11/6 and 11/7) for the Chinese Xu Xin, third in the classification.

It was the second most important event of the season, behind only the Olympics.

Calderano entered the table tennis world top 20 in January 2017.

When he was number 25 in the world rankings, he participated in the 2017 World Table Tennis Championships, losing in the 3rd round to the Chinese Xu Xin, 3rd in the world, by 4 to 1 (partials of 12/10, 7/11, 11/6, 11/3 and 11/4).

At the 2017 Pan American Table Tennis Championships held in Cartagena, he obtained two gold medals in singles and team.

This year, he was also a singles and doubles bronze medalist at the Czech Republic Open; Singles and doubles champion at the Brazilian Open, and silver medalist in the doubles tournament at the Hungarian Open.

Calderano started the year ranked 17th in the world, and arrived at this tournament sixth in the rankings.

Calderano is also well known for beating China's Fan Zhendong at the quarterfinals of the 2018 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals in Incheon, South Korea.

Born in Rio de Janeiro, he started playing table tennis at the age of eight.

Since his mother, father and grandfather were physical education teachers, the boy was encouraged to play sports from an early age.

From the age of 10 to 12, he was a member of the Rio volleyball team and was pre-school state champion in the long jump.

At the age of 14, Calderano left Rio de Janeiro, and the Laranjeiras club, home of Fluminense, where he trained, for São Caetano do Sul, in São Paulo, to wear the uniform of the Brazilian table tennis team for the first time.

At the 2018 World Team Table Tennis Championships, Calderano reached the quarterfinals playing with Gustavo Tsuboi and Eric Jouti.

At the 2018 ITTF Pan-America Cup, Calderano won the gold medal.

Calderano entered the table tennis world top 10 in July 2018.

In December 2018, Calderano won a historic bronze medal at the 2018 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals.

In the semi-final, a few hours after beating the Chinese Fan Zhendong, number 1 in the world and voted the best player of the season, Calderano was defeated by the Japanese Tomokazu Harimoto, fifth in the world rankings, 4-0 (7/11, 8/11, 8/11 and 5/11).

The Japanese phenomenon, just 15 years old, played his quarter-final match a day earlier.

Calderano had less than five hours to recover from an extremely exhausting duel against the best in the world.

Other important results for Calderano in 2018 were the individual silver medal at the Qatar Open, the individual bronze medal at the Hungarian Open, runner-up in the 2017/18 Bundesliga, and the title of Brazilian adult champion.

At the 2019 ITTF Pan-America Cup, Calderano won the gold medal, becoming two-time champion of the tournament.

At the 2019 Pan American Games, Calderano won gold in singles (becoming two-time champion of the competition) defeating the Chinese, naturalized Dominican, Jiaji Wu in the final, in addition to obtaining gold in doubles, and bronze in teams.

At the 2019 World Table Tennis Championships, Calderano reached the 4th round (round of 16), where he faced Chinese Ma Long, two-time world champion and Olympic champion, and was defeated by 4 sets to 1, partial 8/11, 11/8, 11/1, 11/3 and 11/8.