Table tennis is derived from lawn tennis and was initially played as after-dinner entertainment among upper-class English families who would use whatever they could find as equipment. At the time, they would place books on a table to serve as a net, the lids of cigar boxes for rackets and a rounded-off cork from a champagne bottle as the ball. Thankfully, table tennis equipment has evolved over time and in 1926 competitions were organised in Berlin and London, giving rise to the first world championships which were held in London that same year. Enormously popular in Asia, table tennis is played by over 40 million people around the globe, making it one of the most popular sports in the world.
