Last Updated on October 2, 2024 by Sorin Petroj
Darko Jorgic is a professional Slovenian table tennis player. He was born on 30th July 1998 (24 years old).
In his early life, he lived in Slovenia’s tenth-largest town and the seat of the Municipality of Trbovlje together with his family. Darko first came into the limelight during the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
From there, he has been making big moves and impact for Slovenia in the table tennis world. He is also considered one of the best backhand table tennis players that have graced the universe.
Darko is a full professional table tennis player. In this article, we are going to see Darko’s achievements over time and how his career journey has been and is fairing on as well.
It will also give an overview of his personal and early life, ranking, net worth, and equipment history. Hang tight till the end of the article to get the whole information.
Darko Jorgic Player Profile
- Full name: Darko Jorgić
- Nickname: Jorgić
- Nationality: Slovenian
- Age: 24 years
- Current ITTF ranking: 10th place
- Highest ITTF ranking: 6th place
- Playing style: Right-hand shakehand grip
- Height: 182 cm
- Weight: 74 kgs (163 lbs)
- Teams: NTK Hrastnik, Slovenia NTK Krka, Italy U.S.D. Apuania Carrara TT, Germany TSV Bad Königshofen, Germany 1. FC Saarbrücken
- Coaches: Joze Urh
- Equipment: Blade: Timo Boll ALC- 2021, Tibhar Dynamic JS
- Equipment Rubber: Hybrid K3, Tibhar MX-P
Darko Jorgic Table Tennis Player (Early Life)
Darko grew up in a small town – Trbovlje in Slovenia where he lived with his parents. He was the only child of his parents. He then started playing table tennis here with his close childhood friend, Nathan Urh, even before the age of 5.
Nathan’s parents were both former top players in the Old Yugoslavia and table tennis coaches. His dad, Joze Urh, quit basketball after winning a medal in his first table tennis tournament. This gave him the courage and motivation to fully focus on the sport since that experience showed him that he is equally capable.
When Joze discovered his son’s and friend Darko’s interest and talent in table tennis, he decided to nurture them and he was their permanent couch. He sharpened their skills and prepared them for future tournaments with their agemates.
Darko seemed to continuously respond well to the lessons he was receiving. He was vigorously training for 4 nights a week and very frequently during the week. He has never skipped a day of practice ever since he was 12.
At the age of 15, he could train twice a day. This was when he left his home for Narodnega Heroja Rajka High School and he was living at the national training center in Novo Maestro.
After completing his high school studies and graduating, he went abroad. His first stop was in Carrara Italy where he stayed for a year. Jorgic pulled from that town and left for Bad Konigshofen in Bavaria. He later went to Saarland where he is currently based playing for FC Saarbrucken.
Darko Jorgic Early Career Life
Already at the age of six, he was bringing medals and trophies home in the categories of different events he competed in. He vigorously trained for two years, after which he participated in international tournaments in Croatia, Hungary, France, Belgium, Slovakia, Russia, and Romania, and regional competitions and national championships of the Republic of Slovenia.
Darko Jorgic became a member of NTK Hrastnik at a much younger age until the age of 15, he entered high school at Novo Mestro and became a member of the NTK Krka club, where he also trained hard and played for this club.
While he was still a member of this club, it brought 3 national titles in the periods of 2013/2014 and 2015 /2016. Darko together with other wonderful players took this club’s performance a notch higher and many could see it succeed like never before.
Right now he is a huge threat to Truls Moregard and Tomokazu Harimoto among other top players from other countries. He has entered the club of the top 30 best table tennis players in the world.
Darko’s Achievements
He was the European Champion in 2022, defeating Liam Pitchford in a round of 32 in the Tokyo Olympics men’s singles with a 4-2 score. Darko also managed to beat Tomokazu Harimoto in the round of 16 to advance to the quarter-finals of the men’s singles event in the tournament.
In the 2022 WTT Contender Novo Gorica, he defeated Duba Benedikta, a German table tennis player in the men’s singles at the semi-final stage.
The overall score was 4:3. He went two points ahead and defeated Mizuki Oikawa and Yuta Tanaka (both Japanese Players) in the men’s doubles and semis with a 3:0 score. His partner in the doubles was Polansky Tomas.
He beat Apolonia Tiago from Portugal and Kubik Maciej from Poland in the men’s singles in the Best 32 and Best 16 respectively.
Losses:
As much as we talk about Darko’s successes, it is good to also look at his failures in the past year. It is these failures that made him discover his weaknesses and aim at improving them and becoming the best.
He lost to opponent Ma Long from China in the 2022 WTT Cup finals in the men’s singles for the Best 16. He scored 1 as opposed to the wins for his competitor who scored 3.
He was also defeated by one point (3:4) in the 2022 WTT Contender Novo Gorica men’s singles finals by Shinozuka Hiroto from Japan. They met again in the doubles and Hiroto defeated Polansky Tomas and Dako Jorgic together with Shunsuke Togami by getting a score of 3 to 0.
Summary of his achievements over the years:
European Championships: 3. Place; Men’s Team; 2017 Luxembourg
- place; singles; 2022 Munich
European Top-16: singles; 1.place; 2022 Montreux; 2023 Monteux
- place; 2020 Montreux
Mediterranean games: 1. Place; singles; 2018 Tarragona
- place; Men’s team; 2018 Tarragona; 2022 Oran
Jorgic Darko has won a total of medal record 10 medals at the European championships for under-15, under-18, and under-21 men’s singles events, doubles, mixed doubles, and men’s teams.
Darko Jorgic reached the round of 16 at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Here were stronger opponents but he also heated the weaker ones.
At WTT Star Contender Doha 2021, Darko Jorgic provided one of the most stunning results in a memorable comeback match – coming back from two games down to defeat Brazil’s Hugo Calderano 3-2.
He recently defeated Truls Moregard in the finals of the Europe Top 16 in 2022 becoming the champion. Jorgic was the gold medalist in the 2022 CCB Europe Top 16 Cup Men’s event after a thrilling final.
Darko Jorgic became the first Slovenian to take up first place in this competition.
Darko’s Playing Style
Darko Jorgic uses the right-handed shakehand grip in his plays. He is famous for his unique service from the backhand. He likes to serve with his backhand from the far forehand corner.
This allows him to give wide angles to his opponent’s short forehand and sets up his powerful backhand for the third ball.
Darko Jorgic is considered one of the best backhand players in the game of table tennis. He generates very powerful backhand shots and can produce a variety of backhand serves.
Personal Life
There has been no news of Darko’s dating history. We presume he is currently single and not dating anyone at the moment. This means that he is also not married.
Darko Jorgic Net Worth
As we said earlier, Jorgic is a full-time table tennis player. His salary totals approximately $ 426 thousand. His net worth is estimated to be about 1.5 million USD.
Darko’s Current and Highest Ranking
Darko Jorgic is currently ranked number 10 according to ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking as of November 8, 2022.
The highest rank on ITTF rankings he has ever gotten was 6th place as of 3rd May 2022. Considering the players who have been improving in their ranks consistently over the years, Jorgic would be one of them.
Source: World Table Tennis
Clubs History
He began his table tennis career playing for the NTK Hrastnik club. This was in his earlier years up to 2013. He then moved to Slovenia NTK Krka where he stayed from some parts of 2013 to 2016.
Darko Jorgic then traveled abroad and went to play for Italy U.S.D. Apuania Carrara TT for approximately a year (up to 2017). He later traveled to Germany to play for Germany’s TSV Bad Königshofen club for another year.
He is currently playing for the Germany FC Saarbrücken club since 2018.
Darko Jorgic Coach
His coach since childhood is Joze Urh.
Darko Jorgic Equipment History
Darko Jorgic is a Tibhar-sponsored player. Tibhar facilitates him with all his equipment for table tennis, from rackets to rubbers and blades, to attires and balls.
He is currently using the Tibhar Dynamic JC blade. Before he transitioned to this blade he was using the Timo Boll ALC Butterfly blade in 2021.
For the rubber, he uses Tibhar Hybrid K3 on both his forehand and backhand. He was recently using Tibhar MX-P as his backhand rubber (2022).
Blade History
Tibhar Dynamic JC
This new blade by Darko Jorgic (DJC) uses Dyneema carbon fiber. It consists of 5 wood plies and 2 layers of Dyneema carbon fibers. Power, control, and flexibility are not only the main qualities of Dynamic JC Jorgic blade but also of Darko‘s playing style!
One thing about this blade is that it’s a very fast blade that easily loops through topspins. It has an extremely short dwell time so it cannot produce a lot of spins. What it allows is smooth striking through the spin. It has a flat arc and will need some lifting to get backspins over the net.
It’s however easy to hit with off-backspin or topspin. Serves will rebound quickly off the blade but if you can spin through serves it will allow you to do it with ease.
It is definitively a blade that is geared toward advanced and professional-level aggressive players at any distance from the table. It offers the stiffness and solidity of 7-ply all-wood blades that are needed for short pip driving/blocking.
Darko Jorgic Blade – Timo Boll ALC
Its features include:
- Plies – 5W + 2ALC
- Thickness – 5.8 mm
- Weight – 86g
- Reaction – 11.8
- Vibration – 10.8
- Style – Attack
- Handle – flared, anatomic and straight
- Head size – 157 mm x 150 mm
- Made in Japan
It is part of the Butterfly ALC blade series. The Timo Boll ALC is the blade of choice for the European Triple Champion, Timo Boll. Other players have also come to love its capabilities and have made it their main blade, including Darko who used it for some time.
This table tennis blade produces more powerful loops and is more elastic in the sense that it has a prolonged sweet spot and a dwell time, which makes the looping very easy. The backspin on the forehand drive is excellent too.
This rubber can be combined with Chinese rubbers which makes a great combination.
Rubber History
Tibhar MX-P
It has a medium hardness from Evolution, the flagship rubber series from TIBHAR. Evolution offers two different categories of rubber types to get the most out of your specific playing style; -S and -P.
Evolution MX-P is the fastest and most popular out of all Evolution rubbers. It is the best choice for aggressive players because of its grippy top sheet and powerful sponge.
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It has high spin levels and more speed. This means that its dwell time is very short. Aside from all these, it is a fun rubber to use.
- Speed: 98
- Spin: 96
- Control: 67
Tibhar Hybrid K3
This table tennis rubber is part of the hybrid k series from Tibhar which includes K-1, k-2, and k-3. Hybrid K3 offers a range of options to players with different skills and playing styles. For example, it gives a really good bounce.
Some of its properties include:
- Surface – sticky/pimples-in
- Hardness – 39.5° to 40.5°
- Thickness – Max
- Speed – 118
- Spin – 130
- Control – 110
- Performance – backhand and forehand
- Made in Germany
The hard sponge is the reason for the high speeds. It combines the stickiness of Chinese ping pong rubbers with the ease of use of non-sticky German rubbers. It’s quite a soft rubber that makes it easier for players who haven’t used Chinese sticky rubbers to adapt to it.
Darko Jorgic Table Tennis Player – Conclusion
There you have it! Thank you for staying until the end. I hope that this information about Darko Jorgic has been useful to you.
You can pick up some of his characteristics and skills and apply them in your gaming life so that you can succeed just like him!
To sum up, Darko Jorgić is a shining example of what can be achieved through hard work and dedication. As one of the most accomplished table tennis players in Slovenia, his success speaks volumes about the power of resiliency and perseverance as well as raw skill.
Throughout many years of competition both at individual and team levels, Darko has earned numerous awards including a Merited Master of Sport title. His legacy will live on for years to come, inspiring those who admire him to pursue their dreams with zeal and purpose.
Success is never a result of luck – it comes from within. If there’s anyone who proves this statement right, it’s Darko Jorgić. He is proof that anything can be accomplished when we go after our goals with passion and commitment.
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