Revolutions are the stock-in-trade for table tennis players. The ability to impart rotation on the hollow plastic ball is the hallmark of any professional, especially in the modern game. Agnes Simon, a European legend who passed away today at the age of 85, lived a life framed by revolutions. Born in communist Hungary in 1935, she had quite a knack for spinning the ball with the pips-out hard bats everyone used at the time. At 15, played in her first Wold Cup for Hungary, reaching the quarters in doubles. Two years later, table tennis itself would be revolutionized when a little-known player from Japan named Hiroji Satoh introduced the sponge-covered racket, winning the 1952 men's singles world championship in the process. Agnes Simon stayed ahead of the technological curve, thanks in part to her husband Béla Simon's side hustle as the European distributor for Butterfly, the Japanese table tennis equipment giant. The Simons saw their native Hungary overtaken with violence after a student uprising was brutally suppressed by the Soviet Union. Agnes and Béla, himself a world-class player, were among 200,000 Hungarians refugees to flee the violence of the 1956 revolution in their homeland. The couple sought asylum in Sweden, then a burgeoning table tennis power. The next year at the World Championships in Stockholm, Agnes paired with Livia Mossoczy to win the World Championship in women's doubles. After moving to the Netherlands, Agnes fought under the Dutch flag from 1959–1960. While the Simons were racking up an enviable collection of stamps on their passports, the longed to finally unpack and put down roots somewhere. Beginning in 1962, the couple settled down for good in West Germany. Sailing under the West German flag, Agnes had quite the auspicious maiden voyage, winning the singles title at the 1962 European Championships. Agnes remained a fixture of German table tennis until the 1990s, dominating the Bundesliga until she was 60. When she was 57, she boasted she was playing "better than ever today." Sadly, Béla died in 1996, and Agnes retired from professional play. Now reunited with her husband Béla, Agnes Simon's revolutionary life has come full circle.

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