Simon Gerada
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men's Table tennis | ||
Representing  Malta
|
||
| Games of the Small States of Europe | ||
 |
2011 Liechtenstein | Doubles |
 |
2013 Luxembourg | Team |
Simon Gerada is a right-handed Australian/Maltese Table Tennis Player. His father, Joe Gerada was born in Malta and emigrated to Australia in the 1980s. Simon Gerada was born and brought up in Melbourne, Australia and began playing at the age of 9 after he witnessed his father win a shopping centre tournament. He represented Victoria in national junior tournaments.
Gerada represented Australia in the Sydney Olympics as a 19-year-old.
After having played in Europe subsequently to the Sydney Olympics, Gerada had returned to Australia by 12 January 2001.
In January 2001, Gerada returned to Australia. On the same day, he got a phone call asking him to go to a training session. The Australian Team was training for the World Championships and it was in Gerada's Table Tennis Australia contract that he must attend this session. However, after 2 hours he walked out citing that he "could not cope". This compromised his Commonwealth Games position and despite calls from the Victorian Institute of Sport that he should be allowed to represent Australia, the authorities did not back down. Gerada accepted the offer from his father to play for Malta instead.
In response to this Simon said "I'd been playing the sport for six years professionally, hard at it. And where had (Australia) been for the past five years, when were (they) feeding me? I was eating toast before my last league match because I was struggling with money," he said. "But at the age of 19 I came home and said I need a break … and they weren't there for me, the officials."
Gerada has had a excellent rivalry with fellow teammate of Australia William Henzel. Their best match was famously when they played in the 2009 Victoria open final. The match is famous for Simon Gerada consistently saying cozza! (c'mon) in after winning crucial rallies. The final went down to the wire with both players equal at 3 games all (3-3) an controversial moment happened with Henzel leading 10-9. The ball slipped over onto Geradas side and appeared to hit the side of the table however the umpire declared that the ball hit the inside of the table and thus declared the match to William Henzel. This led to Simon screaming at the umpire, saying ''I cant cope''.
In Melbourne in 2006, he teamed up with his elder brother Wayne [1] representing Malta in the Table tennis doubles.
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