The Fastest Wrists in the East

Table tennis, that vicious art of demolishing an opponent with reflex action, deadly patience and a featherweight celluloid ball, had its murky origins in the late 19th century. The game seems to have been invented by an American or an Englishman: it was originally promoted in Britain and the U.S. by toy and game companies, under the patented name Ping Pong. As a competitive sport, it has seldom been taken seriously in this country, and today it is usually relegated to suburban basements, where sons can wreak Oedipal vengeance on their panting middle-aged fathers.

Not so elsewhere. In Europe and, above all, in Asia, table tennis is definitely a big-league sport and sometimes a national obsession. Japan, which began to dominate international competition shortly after World War II, has an estimated 40,000 tournament players. Former Japanese table-tennis greats like Ichiro Ogimura are as revered as Babe Ruth was in the U.S. In the early 1960s the Red Chinese also moved into the top world ranks. Now some 100 million Chinese play the sport, and one plant in Canton alone produces 70,000 balls a day. Premier Chou Enlai, himself a buff, urges the Chinese to excel at table tennis in order to rid themselves of "that old inferiority complex toward the Westerners."

Political Spin. And excel they did--until 1965, when they dropped out of international tournaments in the wake of Mao's Cultural Revolution. Last week, in the 31st World Table Tennis Championships at Nagoya, Japan, the Chinese were back again, reconfirming their prowess as the fastest wrists in the East. In the competition with 308 players from 54 countries, their 22-member team swept four of the seven main events and won the Swaythling Cup, the table tennis counterpart of the Davis Cup. Sometimes using the traditional "handshake" grip of the West (as opposed to the "penholder" grip developed in Japan), the Chinese took up aggressive stances barely a yard from the table and triumphed with relentless, smashing attacks.

If anything, the spin on their game was more political than ever. Before the tournament started, they successfully demanded that the Nationalist Chinese be excluded. Then their star, Chuang Tse-tung--whose fearsome forehand drive made him world men's singles champ from 1961 through 1965--forfeited his shot at regaining the title when he refused to play the contender from Cambodia. Finally, at tournament's end, the Chinese made an extraordinary gesture by inviting the American team to visit China this week.

Reappraisal Needed. For the Japanese hosts, and for most of the 4,500 fans who thronged daily into the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, the results were a severe blow. Japan won only one title--in the women's team competition--for its worst showing since 1952. To compound the ignominy, the Japanese saw their 1969 world singles champ, Shigeo Ito, upset in the men's final by Sweden's Stellan Bengtsson, 18. Said a crestfallen spokesman for the Japanese delegation: "We simply have to have a sweeping reappraisal of our techniques."

And what of the Americans, who with five men and four women constituted one of the smallest teams in Nagoya? They finished 21st in the women's standings, an even more lackluster 28th in the men's. Where table tennis is concerned, the U.S. is still not far from the basement.

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