Table tennis

Table tennis is a sport played with a very light (2.7 gram), high-bouncing hollow plastic ball of 4 centimetres diameter, on a table 2.74 metres long, 1.525 metres wide, and 74 centimetres high with a masonite? or similar manufactured timber, coated with a low-friction, smooth coating. The court is divided into two halves by a 15-centimetre high net. Players are equipped with a wooden bat covered with rubber.

A point is commenced by the player serving the ball by hitting it such that it bounces in the half of the court closest to him, then in the opponent's half. The opponent must then hit it back so that it bounces in the servers half (not bouncing in his own half), and then the players alternate playing the ball and having it bounce on the opponent's side of the table until one makes an error. Errors can be:

• 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
• having the ball not bounce on the opponent's side after hitting it (unless the opponent hit the ball before it bounced)

The other player is awarded one point. A player (chosen by a coin toss or other means) serves for five points (regardless of who wins them) and then the serve passes to his opponent for five serves.

Typically, games are played to 21 points, but there should be a minimum of two points difference. In competition play, sets are played to 21 points, and the matches are best of five sets.

While popular around the world at a recreational level, most of the world's best competitive players are from China, but several world champion titles have also gone to Sweden. Skilled players exhibit extrordinarily swift reaction times, but racquet construction (elite players typically select and attach the rubber to their own racquets) contributes significantly to the amount of deviation from the expected ball flight path players can achieve by putting spin on the ball.