Robert Gardos


Robert Gardos is a Hungarian-born Austrian table tennis player, European Champion and Olympic participant. He plays for the French club Chartres ASTT. As of August 2016, he is ranked the no. 48 player in the world.
Since the opening in 2011, Robert Gardos practices at the Werner Schlager Academy in Schwechat, Austria.

Career

Early career

Gardos was born on 16 January 1979 in Budapest, Hungary. He began playing table tennis in his hometown club Budapesti VSC where his father, Gábor Gárdos worked as a coach that time. In 1993 Gardos won the European Youth Championship in singles and in mixed doubles on the side of Mihaela Encea in the cadet category. At the age of 14, he switched his residence to Austria, however, he competed for Hungary until he was 18. In 1998, after a conflict with the Hungarian national team – Gardos was left out from the team and could only compete in the singles event –, he opted to play for Austria in the future, having already obtained the citizenship two years earlier.

Austrian years

Gardos, who is right-handed, began competing for Austria after the three year international suspension for country changing was lifted. He had several success at Table Tennis European Championships, most notably winning the doubles event of the 2012 edition with Daniel Habeson. One year later the duo finished second in the same event having lost the final against Wang Zeng Yi and Tan Ruiwu. In singles, Gardos' best performance came in 2008 in St. Petersburg by finishing third.
Gardos was also present at two Olympic Games in 2008 and 2012. At the 2008 Summer Olympics Gardos faced an early exit in the singles as he was beaten in the second round by Zoran Primorac, thus finished tied-33rd. In the team event, Austria just missed out a medal as they fell short against South Korea in the bronze final by a scoreline 1–3.
Gardos did not qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics in singles, but the Austrian team with the same line-up was present at the Games. After an easy victory in the first round, the team faced eventual bronze medalist Germany and lost without winning a single match, thus finishing tied-fifth.
In June 2015, he competed in the inaugural European Games, for Austria in table tennis, more specifically, Men's team with Stefan Fegerl and Daniel Habesohn. He earned a bronze medal.
Gardos qualified for and competed in the 2017 World Table Tennis Championships, seeded at number 42. In the first round, he defeated Chew Zhe Yu of Singapore, before losing to Chinese player, and number 4 seed Zhang Jike,.

Personal life

His nickname is Robi. His hobbies include playing golf, reading, and listening to music. He speaks German, Hungarian, Spanish, and English.

Style

Robert Gardos uses the following styles for play: