Table Tennis Facts
Table tennis is a sport where two or four players hit a ball back and forth to each other, with a racket on a table, in a manner similar to tennis.
Table tennis is very popular in East Asia and is the most popular sport in the world in terms of player numbers, as well as one of the newest of the major sports.
Table tennis is often called ping pong in the US.
Ball spin, speed, placement, strategy and tactics play an important part in competitive table tennis matches.
The speed of the ball can vary from slow serves with much spin to smashes that travel as fast as 112.5 kilometers per hour (69.9 miles per hour).
Table tennis requires a large enough room so that players can move freely. In international competitions, the International Table Tennis Federation requires an area not less than 14 m (46 ft) long, 7 m (23 ft) wide and 5 m (16 ft) high. The 4 corners may be covered by surrounds of not more than 1.5 m (5 ft) length.
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.
The international rules specify that the game is played with a light 2.7 gram, 40 mm (formerly 38 mm) diameter ball. The 40 mm ball was introduced at the 2003 World Table Tennis Championship. However, this created some controversy as the Chinese National Team complained that this was merely to give non-Chinese players a better chance of winning.
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