It is widely believed that Ping Pong, or Table Tennis, derived from a game called Royal Tennis that was around in medieval times perhaps the 12th Century AD. Some believe that it became more fashionable in the 1880’s and was actually known as indoor tennis played by British officers who were stationed in South Africa and India. It has been said that they used books across a table as a net, wine bottle corks that had been rounded were used as balls and cigar box lids served as paddles.
David Foster patented the first table tennis set in 1890; his version also included different table size versions of Football, Lawn Tennis and Cricket. In 1891 Gossima was introduced in London and it used drum style paddles, a 30 cm tall net and a cork ball wrapped in 50mm webbing. It was also during the 1890’s that Parker Brothers started to make a tennis kit for indoors including a portable net, paddles and a small net covered ball.
It was in 1900 that the hollow celluloid balls made their way to England from the US but some sources claim that they were actually plastic. Before this they were usually cork or solid rubber and most often covered in some kind of netting or other material. In 1901 the name Ping Pong was registered in England while the rights to the American name was sold to Parker Brothers. It was also during 1901 that it first made its appearance in China.
From the 1920’s to the 1950’s, also known as the Hard Bar Era, Europe dominated the sport; then during the Sponge Bat era of the 1950’s through the 1970’s we began to see the rise of China and Japan. From 1970 to 1989 the most dominant force for both women’s and men’s events came from China, winning numerous times and championships all over the world.
During 1989 to 1993 the Chinese did have their stranglehold on the men’s championship broken by Sweden by winning team events in 1989, 1991 and 93 and men’s singles in 89 and 91. However, from about 1995 on China has reasserted its control of the Men’s singles and teams at all world championships.
