Table Tennis: The Essentials
Last Updated: Tuesday, September 14, 2010 | 12:35 PM ET
By Jesse Campigotto, CBC Sports
Achanta Sharath Kamal and his Indian teammates have been sharpening their games against world-class competition in China. (Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images)
Table tennis (ping pong, if you must) is on the program for the third straight time after its debut at the 2002 Games in Manchester.
Singapore is the dominant nation at the Commonwealth Games, with 22 medals (including seven gold). England and Australia are next with seven medals each (the English have a 4-0 gold advantage) followed by India and Nigeria with six apiece. Canada has a silver and a bronze, both from 2002.
Eight gold medals are on the line at Delhi's Yamuna Sports Complex, which hosts singles, doubles and team tournaments for both men and women, plus a mixed doubles event. There's also a women's wheelchair division.
The team competition pits two squads of three players against each other in a best-of-five series of matches. All the matches are singles except for the third one, which is doubles. After a round-robin stage, the teams with the best records advance to the knockout rounds.
Be sure to keep your eye on the ball: that little hollow sphere can travel at speeds up to 100 km/h and with a spin rate exceeding 9,000 rpm.
Who to watch
Achanta Sharath Kamal (India): The 28-year-old from the southern tip of India wasn't taking any chances as he prepared to defend his Commonwealth Games men's singles title. Kamal, ranked No. 22 in the world, and his Indian teammates travelled to China over the summer to train and compete in the land that's home to the vast majority of the world's best table tennis players. They'll find the competition a little easier in Delhi, where Kamal and Singapore's Ning Gao (No. 14 in the world) are the only eligible players in the world's top 35.
Mo Zhang (Canada): The Canadian table tennis brass thinks its best hope for a medal rests in Zhang, a 21-year-old Ottawa resident who is originally from China. Zhang comes with plenty of big-event experience: she played in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, and helped the Canadian women's team take silver at the 2007 Pan Am Games in Rio.
When to watch (gold and bronze medal matches)
Day 5 (Oct. 8)
- Women's team.
Day 6 (Oct. 9)
- Men's team.
Day 9 (Oct. 12)
- Mixed doubles.
Day 10 (Oct. 13)
- Men's doubles.
- Women's singles.
Day 11 (Oct. 14)
- Women's wheelchair.
- Women's doubles.
- Men's singles.
