Table Tennis History

A brief history of Table Tennis

Earliest origins of Table Tennis

The game of table tennis probably descended from the the game of "Royal Tennis" (also known as Real Tennis or Court Tennis), which was played in the medieval era.

Some sources claim that the sport was once known as indoor tennis, and was played in the early 1880's by British army officers stationed in India and South Africa. These officers are supposed to have used cigar box lids as paddles rounded wine bottle corks as balls and books for an improvised net.

In the late 1800's the game became fashionable among upper classes in
England.

According to the ITTF website, the first use of the name "Table Tennis" appeared on a board and dice game made by J.H.Singer of New York.

The earliest existing evidence of a table tennis game is a set made by David Foster, patented in England, which included table versions of Lawn Tennis, Cricket and Football.

By this time, several patents with basic rules had been registered. Parker Brothers begin making an indoor tennis kit which included a portable net, a small ball covered in netting, and paddles.

1900
Englishman James Gibb is credited with bringing hollow celluloid balls back to England from the USA, although some other sources claim they were plastic balls. Previously most balls were solid rubber or cork, often covered in material. Some sources also credit Gibb with inventing the name "ping pong", which was supposed to have been derived from the sound of the ball bouncing off the drum battledores (paddles), each of which had a different sound.

1901
John Jacques registers "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 China via western settlements.

1902
Englishman E.C.Goode is credited with putting pebbled rubber on his wooden blade, allowing him to put more spin on the ball. This is the forerunner of the ordinary pimpled rubber racket, which will dominate table tennis until 1952.

1903
On the 1st May 1903, "The Table Tennis Association" and "The Ping Pong Association" amalgamate, forming "The United Table Tennis and Ping Pong Association". This association will later revert its name to "The Table Tennis Association", before becoming defunct in 1904.

1920's
In the early 1920's the game began to revive in England and Europe.

1922
"The Table Tennis Association" is reconstituted, with the name "English Table Tennis Association" being adopted in 1927.

1926
The International Table Tennis Federation is formed.

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).

1935
The American Ping Pong Association, US Amateur Table Tennis Association, and National Table Tennis Association merge to form the US Table Tennis Association (which was renamed USA Table Tennis in 1994).

1936
Repainted tables (which made the playing surface very slow) and a high net (6¾ inches high) combine to make attacking play very difficult at the World Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia. This results in the longest rally ever in a World Championships taking place, lasting over two hours.

1938
The ITTF lowers the net from 6(3/4) to 6 in. and bans the fingerspin
serves which had been used with devastating effects by American players.

1940-1946
No World Championships held due to World War II.

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.

1952
Hiroji Satoh of Japan becomes notorious for his use of a wooden racket covered in thick foam sponge rubber, which produces much more speed and spin than conventional pimpled rubber rackets. He wins the 1952 World Championships over Jozsef Koczian of Hungary, and begins a period of Asian male domination in the sport which will last until Sweden rises to supremacy from 1989 into the early 1990's.

1957
The World Championships changes to a biennial event (once every two years), due to the logistics of hosting an event of such size, and difficulty in finding suitable venues.

1958
The first European Championships is conducted in Budapest, Hungary, and sees the USSR's debut in international table tennis.

1959-1960
The ITTF standardizes the thickness of ordinary pimpled rubber and sponge rubber.

1960's
In the early 1960's, the loop drive was invented and become popular around the world.

1965-1971
From around 1965 to 1971, China under the rule of Mao Tse-Tung disappears from world table tennis events.

1961-1965
Zhuang Zedong of China wins 3 Men's Singles titles in a row at the World Championships, each time over compatriot Li Furong.

1960's
In the early 1960's, Xhang Xi Lin of China uses a "Yin-Yan" bat with normal rubber on one side, and long pimples on the other - the first recorded instance of successful combination bat play.

1971
China returns to International Competition at the 1971 World Championships.

1971
The US Table Tennis Team takes a "Ping-Pong Diplomacy" trip to China, in a world first effort to use sport to establish and improve diplomatic relations.

1971
Jean-Paul Weber of France uses the first anti-spin rubber in the World Championships in Nagoya, Japan, and enjoys some success with its use.

1971
The first Commonwealth Championships are held in Singapore.

1970's
Table tennis players discover that using bicycle tire repair glue to put rubber on a blade dramatically increases the speed and spin that can be produced. This discovery is often credited to Dragutin Surbek of Yugoslavia, and Tibor Klampar of Hungary. This discovery is called speed
glue.

1970's - 1989
China is the dominant force in both men's and women's events on the world scene, winning multiple events at all world championships.

1980
John Hilton of England wins the European Championships using a combination bat of normal rubber and antispin, twiddling the racket and playing aggressively. The first World Cup event is held in Hong Kong.

1982
The initial World Veteran's Championships is conducted in Gothenburg, Sweden.

1980's
In 1985, the two color rule is adopted to reduce the effectiveness of combination rackets.

1988
Table Tennis becomes an Olympic sport, in Seoul, South Korea.

1989-1993
Sweden breaks the Chinese stranglehold in Men's World Championships, winning the 1989, 1991, and 1993 Teams Events, and producing the 1989 and 1991 World Men's Champions (Jan-Ove Waldner and Jorgen Persson respectively). China continues its dominance in female ranks.

1995-present
China reasserts its control over the Mens Team and Mens Singles events at the World Championships.

1997
Jan-Ove Waldner wins the Mens Singles title at the World Championships for the second time, this time without the loss of a single game!

2000
A brief blip in the Chinese men's dominance occurs when the aging Swedish trio of Jan-Ove Waldner, Jorgen Persson and Peter Karlsson combine to steal the Mens Team title in a thrilling final.

2000
The ITTF increases the ball diameter to 40mm.

2001
The ITTF changes the scoring system, moving to 11 point games, and using a best of 5 games or best of 7 games match.

2002
Table Tennis becomes a Commonwealth Games Sport, at Manchester, England.

2003
Werner Schlager of Austria breaks the Chinese stranglehold on the Men's Singles World Championship title, saving several match points along the way against opponents in Wang Liqin and Kong Linghui. He meets Joo Se Hyuk of South Korea in the final - Joo is the first defensive player to make the Mens Singles final since the Eberhard Scholer of Germany in 1969 (Scholer also lost in his final, to Japan's Shigeo Itoh).

2000's
In the early 2000's, frictionless long pimples become popular among many players, in an attempt to negate the the power and spin produced by modern technology and speed glue.

2006
The intended banning of frictionless long pips and speed glues with toxic organic solvents is announced by the ITTF.

2007
The ITTF withdraws its approval of all table tennis glues, following a health incident involving a speed glue user in Japan.

2008
The use of speed glues with illegal VOCs is banned for all ITTF junior competitions as of January 1. Machines that test for illegal VOCs are introduced to check for rules infractions.