US pro table tennis league blasts niche sport into spotlight
A new table tennis league in the United States is attracting some of the country's top players including Amy Wang, a member of Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics US' Amy Wang (R) eyes the ball as Puerto Rico's Adriana Diaz prepares to serve during their women's table tennis singles round of 32 at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the South Paris Arena in Paris on July 29, 2024. (JUNG Yeon-je) Don't call it the "Marty Supreme" effect: table tennis is a growing sport in the United States, in part because of a new professional league giving the parlor game an ultra-competitive edge. Founded three years ago by tech entrepreneur Flint Lane, Major League Table Tennis (MLTT) is now home to several ping pong players in the global top 100, including Amy Wang and Lily Zhang, who represented Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
At a weekend MLTT match in Princeton, New Jersey, about 100 spectators watched Kotomi Omoda secure victory for the Portland Paddlers against the Florida Crocs. Nikhil Kumar, who also plays for the Paddlers and competed in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, told AFP he was "a little bit skeptical" when he first heard of Major League Table Tennis. Now that the league has been around for a few years, however, "there's been a lot of progression for us in terms of the level of the play and the players that are coming to play stronger," he said.
The Olympic sport's growing US fandom is evident in MLTT ticket sales, which are up 50 percent compared to last year, according to founder Lane. "I don't know if I would be a season ticket holder, but I'm killing a Saturday afternoon," Richard Kurland, a spectators at the match, told AFP. "It's something different.
I'll have stories to tell my friends for the next few weeks, some photos. I would definitely come back. " Despite the league's professional status, MLTT players hold day jobs to support themselves.
"I hope one day that it could be enough," said Kumar, who works as an engineer at a New York tech startup. "I'd love to play table tennis as a living. " - 'A good boost' - Lane told AFP that MLTT ranks among the top professional leagues in the world, though it still trails the Chinese, Japanese, French and German leagues.