Table Tennis Statistics - Have Your Say!

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If you were going to suggest an area of statistics or data to be analysed in Table Tennis, what would it be?

Let's discuss things that the community love about what is currently available, and what we would like to see in future.

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Follow this link to the official ITTF stats page: http://results.ittf.link/

Is there a particular player or piece of info you're interested to know but can't find? Post your comments and ideas below!
 
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What about the mostg common set score of 2017? Biggest comeback?

Which player has won the most sets in deuce?

Where can we see current stats?

Hi TTHopeful, I have updated the thread to include the ITTF stats site. Your suggestions are great! The most common set score on the World Tour is usually 11-9, however if we look at all world ranking events in a calendar year it will probably be lower, 11-7 or 11-8. Biggest comeback is tricky to find but I'd also like to see this. Most sets in deuce (and % of sets won in deuce) is a very relevant stat, look for this in the upcoming World Championships in Halmstad.
 
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I think the results of 2017 Japan Open are messed up in players' stats, missing or duplicate. Can you double check the database? There may be more errors. With incorrect data, the stats make no sense.
 
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I think it would be cool to see who wins the most points directly from their serve (opponent misses the receive).

This would help us to decide who is the best server on the circuit :)

Maybe a stat that shows average rally length as well, either measured by time or the number of shots.
 
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I think it would be cool to see who wins the most points directly from their serve (opponent misses the receive).

This would help us to decide who is the best server on the circuit :)

Maybe a stat that shows average rally length as well, either measured by time or the number of shots.

Thanks, this is a key area where stats can be improved. You'll be glad to know that this type of data is already being looked into. A challenge here is the sheer number of matches being played at large events, especially those not run by ITTF. To see this information in a chart requires each court being monitored to register which player/pair wins each point and how many shots it took. The serve can be determined by the umpire inputting 1st server at the beginning of the match. Currently only the end scores are kept. In future we may see some of the high profile events like World Cups with this sort of data available.
 
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These suggestions are great, but are reaching for the moon somewhat. Are there some more achievable statistics we can think of? Bear in mind for point-by-point analysis this would require one or more people to be stationed at each table for each match. Some events are not run by ITTF, and some have hundreds or over a thousand matches across many days of competition.
 
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No, the tech is already there. All you need is 2 cameras, a PC and some AI to monitor a table and collect real-time 3D data on its own. They did it already for the WTTC. They just need to publish it on the website and let it grow from there.
 
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Please build up a database with correct match results and make it accessible to public. Then let people who are interested do their own research and acquire their analyses if useful. First thing first, please correct the wrong match results, like 2017 Japan Open.
 
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How about stats like number of participants in each country. Would love to know how popular table tennis is.

Participation stats are great, they show the reach and popularity of Table Tennis. A task I'm conducting this year is a full analysis of the World Tour this year, it will show number of countries, participants, participants from each country, strongest event (based on WR of players), among other things. Aside from this it would be interesting to study the Challenge Series and see the spread of countries compared with the World Tour, and then the World Championships to see which nations only come out for the premier event. Participation stats can tell us a great amount. Thanks TTHopeful!
 
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Participation stats are great, they show the reach and popularity of Table Tennis. A task I'm conducting this year is a full analysis of the World Tour this year, it will show number of countries, participants, participants from each country, strongest event (based on WR of players), among other things. Aside from this it would be interesting to study the Challenge Series and see the spread of countries compared with the World Tour, and then the World Championships to see which nations only come out for the premier event. Participation stats can tell us a great amount. Thanks TTHopeful!

Looking forward to some of these as I think more people play table tennis than people actually think.

How many participants in Europe do you know? I read in China there are 300 million players is this correct?
 
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These suggestions are great, but are reaching for the moon somewhat. Are there some more achievable statistics we can think of? Bear in mind for point-by-point analysis this would require one or more people to be stationed at each table for each match. Some events are not run by ITTF, and some have hundreds or over a thousand matches across many days of competition.

Yeah they may be reaching for the moon in Table Tennis because the money is just not there to support the effort. But golf does all this and more, so it is just a matter of gaining popularity and sponsor funding coming up. With Table Tennis being the most popular racket sport in the world I think it is do-able.
 
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Has anyone ever created a graph of the individual top players through history and their ratings by year or month (whatever is available) so we could see a general comparison among the great players over time. Aprad Elo (who developed the rating system used in Chess provided such a listing even going backwards and rating players from history before his rating method was in use so as to compare them. It is I believe a more representative approach of real playing strength than you get in a snap shot of who won which WC, Olympics or W Cups.

The graph ends up looking like arcs with names attached and years along the bottom with the arcs intersecting as one player surpasses another or one player dips due to age etc.

elo-p088.gif
 
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ITTF and ZoomTT have made this kind of graph for each player. I think it is not hard to plot them in one graph. But it does not make sense to me to compare world ranking between old and new system. I mean, it is better to compare players' ranking under one system.
ZoomTT WR database
https://tabletennisworldranking.com
ITTF WR progress
 
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Rating curves of players through history

ITTF and ZoomTT have made this kind of graph for each player. I think it is not hard to plot them in one graph. But it does not make sense to me to compare world ranking between old and new system. I mean, it is better to compare players' ranking under one system.
ZoomTT WR database
https://tabletennisworldranking.com
ITTF WR progress

I see a chart of their ratings at a specific instance but I could not find a graph based on multiple entries over the length of each players career - which them forms a curve for each. If that exists could you provide a link to it? Thanks.

I agree that comparing between two different rating systems would not make much sense but I can still see going back and calculating new style ratings for old players and then comparing them. Of course this is a natural thing to do in Aprad Elo's system, but then I don't know enough about the system used in International Table Tennis to know for sure if it applies to it as well. It was my understanding that the rating system in the US Table Tennis Association was based on the Elo system, but I could be wrong.
 
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