Table tennis

From Free net encyclopedia

(Redirected from Ping pong)

For the film directed by Fumihiko Sori see Ping pong (film).

Image:Wlqxjrk small.jpg Table tennis, also known as Ping Pong (a trademarked name), is one of the most popular sports in the world in terms of player numbers, as well as being one of the newest of the major sports.

乒乓球 (Ping Pang Qiu) is the official name for the sport in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
卓球 (Takkyu) is the official name for the sport in Japan.
탁구 (Tak-ku) is the name for the sport in Korea.

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General description

Image:WaldnerTraining2 small.jpg Table tennis is a sport where two players hit a ball back and forth to each other, with a racket on a table, in a manner similar to tennis. The rules are slightly different, but the concept is essentially the same. Table tennis is an Olympic sport, "ping-pong" is the recreational version of the same sport. Spin, speed and strategy play an important part in competitive table tennis matches. The speed of the ball can vary from slow spinny serves to fast smashes that travel as fast as 110km/h.

The playing surface is a 9 ft × 5 ft × 30 in high (2.7 m × 1.5 m × .762m) hard rectangular table with the surface usually colored green, dark blue, or black. A 6 inch (15.2 cm) tall net divides the table in half (much like a tennis court) and is strung to extend 6 inches (15.2 cm) beyond the table on each side.

The paddles, also known as bats or rackets, are usually about 10 inch long, with a hitting surface that is approximately 6 in × 6 in (15.8 cm × 15.8 cm), although the rules specify no limitations in size or shape. The paddle is covered with pimpled rubber on one or both sides. Modern table tennis paddles are usually covered with rubber, and may have the pimples pointing outwards or inwards, and a thin layer of sponge between the plywood and the rubber.

Spin plays a large part in the modern game of table tennis, and the composition of the rubber and the combination of sponge and rubber is designed to maximize the amount of spin and speed a player can impart to the ball. Other technological improvements include the use of carbon or other synthetic layers as part of the blade to increase the sweet spot or the stiffness of the blade. The ball used in table tennis is a 40 mm diameter ball, made of celluloid, completely hollow and lightweight. A three star rating on a ball usually implies a top quality ball, in bounce and roundness.

Play is fast and demands possibly the quickest reactions of any sport. A skilled player can impart spin to the ball which makes its bounce difficult to predict or return with confidence. Spin combined with speed makes table tennis an exciting sport to play as well as to watch. The difference between Olympic level play and the average home recreational player is tremendous. Often a proper foundation of table tennis skills is required to understand how competitive players can do what seems impossible to the untrained eye.

The winner is the first to score 11 points, with each player alternating serves every two points. At 10-10 (or deuce) the players alternate with every serve. The winner is the first person to gain a clear two points advantage over his opponent. The 11 point game is an International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) change which occurred in 2001. The 21 point game is still widely played at recreational level. All games played at national level and at international tournaments (ITTF) are played to 11 points in either a best of five (5) games (preliminaries) or best of seven (7) games format (championship matches).

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History

Table tennis has its origins in England as an after dinner amusement for upper class Victorians in the 1880s. Mimicking the game of tennis in an indoor environment, everyday objects were originally enlisted to act as the equipment. A line of books would be the net, a rounded top of a Champagne cork or knot of string as the ball, and a cigar box lid as the paddle.

The popularity of the game led game manufacturers to sell the equipment commercially. Early paddles were often pieces of parchment stretched upon a frame, and the sound generated in play gave the game its first nicknames of "whiff whaff" and "ping pong". A number of sources indicate that the game was first brought to the attention of Hamley’s of Regent Street under the name "Cossima". The name ping pong was in wide use before English manufacturer J. Jaques & Son Ltd trademarked it in 1901. The name ping pong then came to be used for the game played by the rather expensive Jaques equipment, with other manufacturers calling theirs table tennis. A similar situation came to exist in the United States where Jaques sold the rights to the ping pong name to Parker Brothers.

The next major innovation was by James Gibb, an English enthusiast of the game, who discovered novelty celluloid balls on a trip to the U.S. in 1901 and found them to be the ideal balls for the game. This was followed by E.C. Goode who in 1903 invented the modern version of the racket by fixing a sheet of pimpled, or stippled, rubber to the wooden blade.

Table tennis was growing in popularity by 1901 when table tennis tournaments were being organized, books on table tennis were being written, and an unofficial world championship was held in 1902. In 1921 the Table Tennis Association was founded in England, and the International Table Tennis Federation followed in 1926. London hosted the first official world championship in 1927. Table tennis was introduced as an Olympic sport at the Olympics in 1988.

In the 1950's rackets that used a rubber sheet combined with a underlaying sponge layer changed the game dramatically, introducing greater spin and speed. The use of speed glue increased the spin and speed even further, resulting in changes to the equipment to "slow the game down".

Toward the end of 2000, the ITTF instituted several rules changes aimed at making table tennis more viable as a televised spectator sport. First, the older 38mm balls were officially replaced by 40mm balls. This increased the ball’s air resistance and effectively slowed down the game. By that time players had begun increasing the thickness of the fast sponge layer on their bats, which made the game excessively fast, and difficult to watch on television. Secondly, the ITTF changed from a 21 to an 11 point scoring system. This was intended to make games more fast-paced and exciting. The ITTF also changed the rules on service to prevent a player from hiding the ball during service, in order to increase the average length of rallies and to reduce the server’s advantage.

Variants of the sport have emerged. "Large ball" table tennis uses a 44mm ball which slows down the game significantly. This has seen some acceptance by players who have a hard time with the extreme spins and speeds of the 40mm game.

There is a move towards reviving the table tennis game that existed prior to the introduction of sponge rubber, Classic table tennis or "Hardbat" table tennis players reject the speed and spin of reversed sponge rubber, preferring the 1940-60s style of no-sponge, short pimpled rubber of play which makes defense less difficult by decreasing the speed and eliminating any meaningful magnus effect of spin. Because hardbat killer shots are almost impossible to hit against a skilled player, hardbat matches focus on the strategic side of table tennis, requiring skillful maneuvering of the opponent before an attack can be successful.

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Equipment

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The ball

The international rules specify that it is played with a light (2.7 gram), 40 mm diameter, high-bouncing hollow celluloid ball.

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The table

The table is 2.74 m (9 ft) long, 1.525 m (5 feet) wide, and 76 cm (30 inches) high with a masonite or similarly manufactured timber, coated with a low-friction, smooth coating. The table or playing surface is divided into two halves by a 15.2 cm (6 inch) high net.

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The racket

Players are equipped with a wooden racket (also called bat or paddle) covered with rubber on one or two sides. The rubber may be pimpled rubber, with the pimples outward, or it may be a rubber that is composed of two materials, a sponge layer, covered by a pimpled rubber, with the pimples pointed inwards or outwards.

Players today, have many choices and variations in rubber sheets on their racket. Although rackets may be purchased with rubber by the manufacturer, most serious tournament players will create a customized racket. A player selects a blank blade (a racket without rubber), based on his playing style. The type of wood and synthetic layers used to make up the blade will provide a slower or faster blade. The player can choose from different types of rubber sheets which will provide a certain level of spin, speed and specific playing characteristics.

Normally, a sheet of rubber was glued to a blade using rubber cement and not removed until the rubber wore out or became damaged. In the 1980's, a new technique was developed where the player would use a special glue called speed glue to apply the rubber every time he played. The glue would help provide more spin and speed by providing a "catapult" effect. This technique is known as "regluing" and has become a standard technique for top players.

Table tennis is the only racket sport that allows different surfaces on each side of the racket. The different types of surfaces provide various levels of spin or speed, or in some cases, nullifies spin. For example, a player may have a rubber that provides much spin on one side of his racket, and no spin on the other side of the racket. By flipping the racket in play, different types of returns were possible. To help a player distinguish between different types of rubber used by his opposing player, international rules, declared that one side must be red while the other side must be black. The player has the right to inspect his opponent's racket before a match to see the type of rubber used and what color it is. During high speed play and rapid exchanges, a player can see clearly what side of the racket was used to hit the ball.

Different types of rubber sheets include:

Reverse (European style): One of the most widely used rubber types. This enables the player to generate high levels of spin and speed. Spin is mainly generated not by the topsheet, but by the ball sinking into and being gripped by the sponge, before being catapulted from the racket.

Reverse (Chinese): These rubbers usually have avery sticky topsheet, and it is sometimes possible to pick the ball up from the table with the bat. Spin is generated mainly by the topsheet, as opposed to the sponge. Because the ball is held on the surface of the rubber, due to the stickyness, chinese sponges are usually hard to compensate from the loss of speed.

Short pimples: Short, pimples out rubbers are usually used by close to the table hitters, e.g Liu Guoliang. They do not generate as much spin as reverse rubbers, but also make the user less susceptable to the opponents spin.

Long pimples: Long pimple out rubbers do not have the abilty to generate any real spin of their own, but feed off the opponents spin, to allow the user to confuse the opponent and upset their rhythm. Usually used by close to the table blockers, or choppers. They are usually only used on the backahnd side, as they offer very limited attacking capabilities.

Anti Loop: Anti loop, like long pimples, cannot generate any real spin, but just allows the user to produce a no-spin ball. Also used to confuser the opponent, and not very widely used at international level.

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Gameplay

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Starting a game

In top flight competition, service is decided by a coin toss. At lower levels it is common for one player (or the umpire/scorer) to hide the ball in one or the other hand (usually hidden under the table) allowing the other player to guess which hand the ball is in, the correct or incorrect guess gives the "winner" the option to choose to serve, or to choose which side of the table to use.

With the introduction of the 11 point game, the serve has become more critical, and the choice to serve first is the most popular decision. Depending on playing conditions, glare, background distractions, etc. it may be to a player's advantage to choose side over serve. If player wins the toss and chooses side, the other player decides to serve or can give the first player the serve.

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Service

In game play, a point is commenced by the player serving the ball. Standing behind the end of the table, with the ball in the palm of one hand and the racket in the other, the server tosses the ball without spin, upward, at least six inches.

He or she then must hit the ball such that it bounces once on his or her half of the table, then bounces at least one time on the opponent’s half. If ball strikes the net but does not strike the opponent's half of the table, then a point is awarded to the opponent. However, if the ball hits the net, but nevertheless goes over and bounces on the other side, it is called a let. Play stops, and the ball must be served again with no penalty. A player may commit any number of lets without penalty.

If the service is "good," then the opponent must then make a "good" return — by returning the ball before it bounces a second time. Returning the serve is one of the most difficult parts of the game, as the server's first move is often the least predictable.

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Scoring

Points are awarded to the opponent for these errors in play:

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During play

allowing the ball to bounce on one’s own side twice
not hitting the ball after it has bounced on one’s own side
having the ball bounce on one’s own side after hitting it
double hitting the ball. Note that the hand below the wrist is considered part of the bat and making a good return off one’s hand or fingers is allowed, but hitting one’s hand or fingers and subsequently hitting the racket is a double strike and an error.
allowing the ball to strike anything other than the racket (see above for definition of the racket)
causing the ball not to bounce on the opponent’s half (making a "good" return)
failing to allow the ball to bounce once in one’s own side ("volleying"); hitting the ball before its first bounce is an automatic loss of point
placing one’s free hand on the playing surface or moving the playing surface

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Service errors

On the serve,

offering and failing to make a good serve. That is, making a service toss and failing to strike the ball fairly into play. (See section on Service)
making an illegal serve (one deemed outside the rules—e.g., hiding the ball, a toss lower than 6 inches, etc.). A warning is usually offered on the first occurrence, a point awarded to the other player subsequently.

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Alternation of service

Essentially a player must make a "good" return as described above. Failure to do so results in the other player being awarded the point. Serves alternate every two points (regardless of the winner) until a player wins with a two-point lead or until a "deuce" game is required, then serve alternates after each point. Typically, games are played to 11 points and a player must win by at least a two point difference. Should each player reach 10 points a "deuce" game comes into effect, players serve alternates after each point as mentioned above and the game is won by the player who gains a lead of 2 points.

In doubles, service alternates every two points between sides, but also rotates between players on the same team. For example, 'player A' serves the ball twice then service alternates to the opposing team and 'player B' takes position to receive service. After two points served by the opposing team and received by 'player B', 'player B' becomes the server. Service continues rotating between team members in this manner until the end of the game. In addition to rotating service between players of the same team during a game, service also alternates between server-receiver with each new game. If 'player A' on 'team 1' serves the first game to 'player A' on 'team 2' (A1-A2), the next game 'player A' on 'team 1' serves to 'player B' on 'team 2' (A1-B2). Thus, doubles play is evenly matched between teams and neither team has the advantage by order of play.

In the old 21 point game, service alternated every 5 points. If both players reached a score of 20, then service would alternate every point until one player had a 2 point advantage.

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Series of games

After each game, players switch sides of the table and in the 5th or 7th, game "for the match", players switch sides when the first player scores 5 points, regardless of whose turn it is to serve. In competition play, matches are typically best of five or seven games. Before 2001, players alternated serves every 5 points and games would be played to 21 points and had to be won by at least 2 points. This is also true in recreational play, especially when more than a few people are waiting to play.

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Doubles game

In addition to games between individual players, table tennis may also be played by pairs. In doubles all the rules of single play apply except for the following. The table is bisected by a line painted along the long axis of the table to create doubles courts. This line’s only purpose is to facilitate the doubles service rule which is that service must originate from the right hand "box" in such a way that the first bounce of the serve bounces once in said right hand box and then must bounce at least once in the opponent side’s right hand box (far left box for server). Play then continues normally with the exception that players must alternate hitting the ball. For example, after a player serves the receiving player make his or her return, the server’s partner returns the ball and then the service receiver’s partner would play the ball. In wheelchair doubles table tennis, a player hits when the ball reaches their side. The point proceeds this way until one side fails to make a legal return and the point is then awarded to the other team. Singles and doubles are both played in international competition, including the Olympic Games since 1988 and the Commonwealth Games since 2002. In 2005, the ITTF has announced that doubles table tennis will only be featured as a part of teams events in the 2008 Olympics.

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Styles of play

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Grip

Competitive table tennis players grip their rackets in a variety of ways. The manner in which competitive players grip their rackets can be classified into two major families of styles. One is described as shakehand, and the other penhold. The Laws of Table Tennis do not prescribe the manner in which one must grip the racket, and numerous variations on gripping styles exist.

Shakehand: The shakehand grip is so-named because one grips the racket similarly to the way one performs a handshake. The grip is sometimes colloquially referred to as a "tennis grip" or a "Western grip." The shakehand grip is popular among players originating in Western nations.

Penhold: The penhold grip is so-named because one grips the racket similarly to the way one holds a writing instrument. The style of play among penhold players can vary greatly from player to player. The style, usually referred to as the Chinese penhold style, involves curling the middle, ring, and fourth finger back. In contrast, another style, sometimes referred to as the Japanese penhold, involves splaying those three fingers out across the back of the racket. Penhold styles are popular among players originating from Asian nations such as China, Taiwan (or Chinese Taipei), Japan, and Korea.
Traditionally, penhold players use only one side of the racket to hit the ball during normal play. The side which is in contact with the last three fingers is generally not used. However, the Chinese have developed a new technique in which a penholder utilizes both sides of the racket. This is referred to as the reverse penhold backhand (RPB).

Other styles: American player Danny Seemiller for the first time successfully used a modified style of play which has become known as the Seemiller grip. This is similar to the Shakehand grip, except the thumb and forefinger form a "V" shape on the backhand side of the paddle.

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Types of shots

In table tennis, the strokes break down into generally offensive (producing topspin) and defensive (producing backspin). Spin exceptions are the smash, block, and lob.

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Offensive strokes

Speed Drive: In table tennis it is similar to strokes from other racket sports like tennis. The racket is primarily perpendicular to the direction of the stroke, and most of the energy applied to the ball results in speed rather than spin, creating a shot that does not arc much, but is fast enough that it can be difficult to return. A speed drive is often the bread-and-butter stroke of a player’s arsenal, used mostly for keeping the ball in play, applying pressure on the opponent and potentially opening up an opportunity for a more powerful attack.
Loop Drive: It is essentially the reverse of the speed drive. The racket is much more parallel to the direction of the stroke ("closed") and the racket thus grazes the ball, resulting in a large amount of topspin. A good loop drive will arc quite a bit, and once striking the opponent’s side of the table will jump forward, much like a kick serve in tennis. A loop drive is dangerous because of its topspin — while not as difficult to return as a speed drive, it is more likely to rebound off the opponent’s racket at a very high angle, setting up an easy smash on the follow up. As the loop drive requires a lot of topspin, players generally use their entire body to generate the movement required. Variations in spin and speed adds to effectiveness of this shot.
Counter Drive: It is usually a counter attack against drives (usually loop drives that goes pretty high). You have to close the racket and stay close to the ball (try to predict its way). You have to hit the ball off the bounce (before it reaches the highest point), with a pretty short movement in a way that the ball goes faster to the other side. A well-timed, accurate counterdrive can be as effective as a smash.
Flip or Flick (in Europe): When a player tries to attack a ball that has not bounced beyond the edge of the table, he/she does not have the room to wind up in a backswing. The ball may still be attacked, however, and the resulting shot is called flip because the backswing is compressed into a quick wrist action. A flip is not a single stroke and can resemble either a drive or a loop in its characteristics. What identifies the stroke is instead whether the backswing is compressed into a short wrist flick. As known as 払い "harai" in Japanese.
Smash: The offensive trump card in table tennis. A player will typically execute a smash when his or her opponent has returned a ball that bounces too high and/or too close to the net. Smashing is essentially self-explanatory — large backswing and rapid acceleration imparting as much speed on the ball as possible. The goal of a smash is to get the ball to move so quickly that the opponent simply can not return it. Because the ball speed is the main aim of this shot, often the spin on the ball is something other than topspin. Sidespin or even backspin can be used effectively with a smash to alter the ball’s trajectory significantly. An offensive table-tennis player will think of a rally as a build-up to a winning smash; only a calculated series of smashes can guarantee a point against a good opponent. Provided that the opponent is not too close to the table or too far away from the ball, a smash can be lobbed, chopped, blocked or even counter-looped, albeit with some difficulty. A player who smashes generally works out a series of smashes (and possibly drop-shots) to rush the opponent out of position, put him off balance, or both. Smashers who fail to do this find it difficult to win a point against an excellent defence.

The way a point develops obviously varies widely, just as in any racket sport, but a very basic tactic for an offensive player can be: speed drive until an opportunity for a loop drive opens up, loop drive and then smash the high-bouncing return of the loop.

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Defensive strokes

Slice: The slice is analogous to the speed drive in some respects — it is very simple, usually used for keeping the point alive and creating offensive opportunities. A slice resembles a tennis slice: the racket cuts underneath the ball, imparting backspin and causing the ball to float slowly to the other side of the table. While not immediately obvious, a slice can be difficult to attack because the backspin on the ball causes it to drop toward the table upon striking the opponent’s racket – in order to attack a slice, a player must lift the ball back over the net. Often, the best option is to simply slice the ball back again, which repeats and results in slicing rallies.
Chop: A chop or cut is the defensive, backspin counterpart to the offensive loop drive. A chop is essentially a bigger, heavier slice, taken well back from the table. The racket face points primarily horizontally, perhaps a little bit upward, and the direction of the stroke is straight down. The object of a defensive chop is to match the topspin of the opponent's shot with your own racket speed. A good chop will float nearly horizontally back to the table, in some cases having so much backspin that the ball actually rises. A chop such as this can be extremely difficult to return due to the enormous amount of backspin.
Block: The block or short is a simple shot, barely worthy of being called a "stroke," but nonetheless can be devastating against an attacking opponent. A block is executed by simply putting the racket in front of the ball — the ball rebounds back toward the opponent with nearly as much energy as it came in with. This is not as easy as it sounds, because the ball's spin, speed, and location all influence the correct angle of a block. Disregarding the difficulty of a block, it is very possible for an opponent to execute a perfect loop, drive, or smash, only to have the blocked shot come back at him just as fast. Due to the power involved in offensive strokes, often an opponent simply cannot recover quickly enough, and will be unable to return his own shot blocked back to him/her. Blocks almost always produce the same spin as was received, which is nearly always topspin. High level players may use what is called active block, adding speed to the ball (with a small topspin movement).
Lob: The defensive lob is possibly the most visually-impressive shot in the sport of table tennis, and it is deceptive in its simplicity. To execute a lob, a defensive player first backs off the table 8-10 feet (2.5 to 3 m, advanced players sometimes go 20 feet or 6 m or more); then, the stroke itself consists of simply lifting the ball to an enormous height before it falls back to the opponent's side of the table. A lob is inherently a creative shot, and can have nearly any kind of spin you can imagine. Talented players use this fact to their advantage in order to control the point. For instance, though the opponent may smash the ball hard and fast, a good defensive lob could quite possibly be even harder to return due to the unpredictability (and heavy amounts) of the spin on the ball. Thus, though backed off the table by tens of feet and apparently running and leaping just to reach the ball, a good defensive player can still win the point using good lobs.
Stop: Stop (or drop shot) is a high level stroke, used as another variation for close-to-table strokes (like harau and slice). You have to position the body close to the ball and just let the ball touch the racket (without any hand movement) in a way that the ball stays close to the net with almost no speed and spin and touches the other side of the table more than twice if the opponent doesn’t reach it. This stroke should be used when opponents are far from the table and not prepared to get close to the table.

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Competition

Image:Competitive table tennis.jpg Competitive table tennis is popular in Europe and Asia and has been gaining attention slowly in the United States. While China continues to dominate recent world titles, Sweden, Germany, France, Korea, and Taiwan also produced many world-class players. Skilled players exhibit extraordinarily swift reaction times, footwork and body control. Also, bat construction and new rubber technology (skilled elite players typically select and attach the rubber to their own bats and glue them before every match) contribute significantly to the amount of deviation from the expected ball flight path. The fairly recent development of speed glue speeds up the departure of the ball from the rubber considerably; though, at the cost of some ball control. There are also competitions in table tennis variants: "Hardbat", in which all competitors use a paddle with small pips-out rubber (sponge is not allowed); and "Large ball", where a 44mm ball is used to decrease the speed.

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Notable players

An international hall of fame exists at the ITTF Museum site [1](pdf); see also External Links below. (Note: winning a Grand Slam is winning an Olympic gold, World Championship, and World Cup gold). See also the List of World Table Tennis Champions

A.K. Vint (England)
Angelica Rozeanu (Romania) won the World Championship 6 times consecutively from 1950-1955
Anna Sipos (Hungary)
Bohumil Vana (Czech)
Cao Yanhua (China)
Deng Yaping (China) Twice Olympic singles and doubles champion (1992 and 1996), 3 times World champion, 3 times World champion in doubles.

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Ella Zeller (Romania)
Ferenc Sido (Hungary)
Frantisek Tokar (Czech)
Fujie Eguchi (Japan)
Ge Xinai (China)
Gizi Farkas (Hungary)
Guo Yuehua (China)
H. Roy Evans (Wales)
Ichiro Ogimura (Japan)
Ivan Andreadis (Czech)
Ivor Montagu (England)
Jan-Ove Waldner (Sweden) The first grand slam winner in 1992, 1989 and 1997 World champion, 1987 and 1991 World runner-up, 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games singles gold medalist, 2000 Sydney Olympic silver medalist, 2004 Athens Olympic Games 4th place (defeating Ma Lin and Timo Boll), 1990 World Cup winner. Considered by many to be the best player ever for his creativity, longevity and progressive all-around playing style.
Jean-Philippe Gatien (France) 1992 Olympic singles silver medalist, 1993 World champion
Jean-Michel Saive (Belgium) 1993 World runner-up, 1994 Euro Top-12 Winner, 1994 European champion, 1994 World Cup runner-up
Jorgen Persson (Sweden) 1991 World champion
Joo Se Hyuk (Korea), currently the best defensive player, 2003 World Championship runner-up
Kong Linghui (China) The third grand slam winner in 2000, 1995 World champion, 2001 World runner-up, 1996 Olympic doubles gold medalist, 2000 Olympic doubles silver medalist, 2000 Olympic singles gold medalist, 1995 World Cup winner, 2002 World Cup runner-up. Kong’s two-winged shakehand looping style combined with excellent footwork and short game make him one of the best players ever.
Jiang Jialiang (China)
Jimmy McClure (Usa)
Johnny Leach (England)
Jorgen Persson (Swe)
Kimiyo Matzusaki (Japan)
Ladislav Stipek (Czech)
Laszlo Bellak (Hungary)
Li Furong (China)
Liang Geliang (China)
Lin Huiquing (China)
Liu Guoliang (China) The second grand slam winner in 1999, 1999 World champion, 1996 Olympic singles and doubles gold medalist.
Liu Wei (China)
Maria Mednyanszky (Hungary)
Marie Kettnerova (Czech)
Matthew Syed (England) A defence specialist. 3 times Commonwealth Games champion.
Ma Lin (China) 1999 and 2005 World runner-up, 2004 Olympic doubles gold medalist, 2000, 2003, and 2004 World Cup winner
Michael Maze (Denmark) 2005 World 3rd place, 2004 Olympic doubles bronze medalist, 2004 Euro Top 12 winner
Miklos Szabados (Hungary)
Nobuhiko Hasegawa (Japan)
Peter Karlsson (Sweden)
Qiao Hong (China)
Richard Bergmann (Austria)
Stephen Kelen (Hungary)
Timo Boll (Germany) 2002 and 2005 World Cup winner, 2002 and 2003 Euro Top 12 winner, 2002 European champion
Vladimir Samsonov (Belarus) 3 times European champion, Twice World Cup champion, 3 times Euro Top 12 champion
Toshiaki Tanaka (Japan)
Vera Votrubcova (Czech)
Victor Barna (Hungary and England) Early table tennis master. 5-time singles and 7-times doubles world champion in 1930s
Wang Liqin (China) 2001 and 2005 World champion, 2000 Olympic doubles gold medalist, 2004 Olympic bronze medalist, 2001 World Cup Finalist
Wang Nan (China) 2000 Olympic singles champion, 3 times World champion
Wang Tao (China)
Werner Schlager (Austria) 2003 World champion, 1999 World 3rd place, 1999 World Cup runner-up, 2000 Euro Top-12 winner
Zhang Xielin (China)
Zhang Yining (China)
Zhuang Zedong (China) 3-time world men's singles champion, 1961, 1963 and 1965
Zoltan Mechlovitz (Hungary)
Zoran Primorac (Croatia) 1993 and 1997 World Cup winner, 1998 and 2000 European runner-up

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Physics of table tennis

A table tennis ball is governed first and foremost by Newton’s laws of motion. However, a significant component of the game is spinning the ball, the effects of which are observed as a result of the Magnus effect on the ball. Through spinning, the Magnus effect adds a whole new dimension to the game, allowing the successful execution of shots that would not be possible according to Newtonian projectile motion alone.

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Governance

The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF): worldwide governing body with national bodies responsible for the sport in each country.

USA Table Tennis (USATT): national governing body for table tennis in the United States.

The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA): official governing body for collegiate table tennis in the United States.

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Notes

Table tennis inspired the first commercially successful video game, PONG.
In the early 1970s the People’s Republic of China (PRC) invited American table tennis players to a tournament in the PRC. This marked a thawing in relations with the United States that was followed up by a visit by U.S. president Richard Nixon. The popular media therefore dubbed this visit "Ping Pong Diplomacy".
At the 1936 World Championships in Prague, two defensive players took over an hour to contest one point.
Table tennis was banned in the Soviet Union from 1930 to 1950 because authorities believed the sport was harmful to people’s eyes.