History of Table Tennis
China via western settlements.
Group 1
The sport got its start in England
towards the end of the 19th century
when, after dinner, some upper-
middle class Victorians decided to
turn their dining room tables into
miniature versions of the traditional
lawn tennis playing field.
Several different every-day objects
were employed in constructing the
sport. They used a line of books as
the net. Rackets were lids from
empty cigar boxes, and a little later,
parchment paper stretched around a
frame.
The ball would be either a ball of
string, or perhaps more commonly,
a champagne cork or rubber ball.
When the game first started it was
called by a number of different
names. “Whif whaf,” “gossamer,”
and “flim flam” were commonly
used to describe it. The words, as
can be assumed, were derived from
the sound that the ball made when
hit back and forth on the table.
John Jacques register "Ping Pong"
as a trade name in England. The
American rights to the name are
sold to Parker Brothers.
On the 12th December 1901, "The
Table Tennis Association" is formed
in England. Four days later, "The
Ping Pong Association" is also
formed in England.
Table tennis is first brought to
The turn of the century brought
many other refinements to the
sport.
In 1926, meetings were held in
Berlin and London that led to the
formation of the International
Table Tennis Federation. The first
World Championships were held
in London in 1926, but the sport
had to wait a long time before it
was given its Olympic debut at the
1988 Seoul Games
And after the world
championships in Prague in 1936,
where two defensive players took
over an hour to contest one point,
the net was lowered to make the
pace of the game-play faster.
1926-1931: Maria Mednyanszky of
Hungary wins the Women's
Singles event at the World
Championships five times in a
row.
1930-1935: Victor Barna of
Hungary wins five of the six Men's
Singles events at the World
Championships (and was runner
up in 1931).
1950-1955: Angelica Rozeanu-
Adelstein of Romania wins six
Women's Singles titles in a row at
the World Championships. Since
her last title win in 1955, every
World Champion in Women's
Singles has been an Asian player
It is estimated there are 40 million
competitive table tennis players
and countless millions playing
recreationally, making it the sport
with the most participants
worldwide. This is largely owing to
its enormous popularity in China,
which has become the dominant
force in the sport.

Table tennis is an indoor ball game

and is ranked the sixth most popular
with an estimated 850millon fans in
the world