They’ve snuck into your timeline. Fast-paced exchanges, like those between Felix Lebrun and Simon Gauzy, showing incredible defensive skills and athletic, long-distance counter-hitting. Scroll again, and there are trick shots, like Kristian Karlsson’s famous fake-out. Another flick, and maybe the dramatic snake shot.
Table tennis has always been a sport of speed. Now, it is learning to move at the speed of the internet.
For Petra Sorling, the transformation is not just about how the game is played, but how it is consumed. In an era where attention spans are shrinking and screens are getting smaller, the sport is quietly reshaping itself. One viral rally at a time. “We are consuming media in another way today than before,” Sorling, the International Table Tennis Federation president, told The Indian Express on Thursday. “We have to understand that we are working in the entertainment business. If we are entertaining enough, the fans will find us.”
That shift in thinking is at the heart of how the ITTF and its commercial arm, World Table Tennis (WTT), are redesigning the sport for a digital-first audience. The numbers and the trends are impossible to ignore.
Sorling points to a striking reality: In today’s ecosystem, a spectacular rally can generate more engagement than the outcome of an entire match.
“When there is an amazing rally, that has more clicks than who won,” Sorling said. “Everything goes very fast. That’s where I can see that we are spot on when it comes to these short clips.”
Highlights factories
The WTT format, conceived before the pandemic but refined during it, has leaned heavily into visual storytelling that works seamlessly on platforms like Instagram and YouTube. Matches are packaged not just as contests, but as highlight factories – designed to produce shareable, snackable moments that travel far beyond traditional broadcasts.
The implication is that table tennis is no longer competing only with other sports for viewership. It is also competing with everything else on a user’s feed. “To stay relevant means that we are not competing with each other, the different sports,” Sorling explained. “We are competing with non-sport activities. The way we are presenting our event in the WTT appeals to the younger generation.”
That battle for relevance is driving changes not just in presentation, but in the structure of the game itself. The sport had already moved from 21-point games to 11-point formats years ago to quicken the pace. Now, the focus is on what happens between the points. “I think that also the format, when we play matches, we have to be fast in between the rallies,” Sorling said. “Because that is when people are checking out.”
In other words, the dead time – the pauses, the resets, the lulls – is now as critical as the action. Other sports have long filled these gaps with entertainment, analysis, or crowd engagement. “I mean, in basketball, even if you have a 2-3 minute break, there is something going on. They never let us do anything else. And that is where we in table tennis have to find our way to not let the fans check out,” she said.
Sorling was in Kapadwanj near Ahmedabad to celebrate World TT Day and the ITTF’s 100th anniversary. She also oversaw the Smashing Barriers programme, which uses TT as a tool for inclusion, health and community development, implemented by the Kapadwanj Kelavani Mandal in collaboration with Dani Sports Foundation.
“We always say at the ITTF and ITTF Foundation that table tennis can change lives. But in a day like yesterday and today, you feel that it’s so very true. We heard so many of the young players are now inspired (by the programme), and table tennis is a tool for that,” Sorling said.
ITTF President Petra Sorling at the federation’s 100th anniversary celebration in Kapadwanj near Ahmedabad on Thursday. (Credit: Dani Foundation)
On the sidelines of the event, Sorling spoke about the sport’s future and said that even as short-form content is becoming central, the ITTF is careful not to frame it as a replacement for the traditional match experience. “I believe still that the concept of a full match is interesting,” she said. “But we have to work out how this match is like.”
This balancing act between depth and immediacy, competition and entertainment is perhaps the biggest challenge facing modern sports. Viral clips can create stars overnight, but sustained narratives are what build legacies.
For table tennis, Sorling insists, the answer lies in coexistence. The highlight reel draws fans in; the full match keeps them invested. Table tennis is catching up, determined not to give viewers a reason to scroll away.
ITTF President Petra Sorling at the federation's 100th anniversary celebration in Kapadwanj near Ahmedabad on Thursday. (Credit: Dani Foundation) 
ITTF President Petra Sorling at the federation’s 100th anniversary celebration in Kapadwanj near Ahmedabad on Thursday. (Credit: Dani Foundation)
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