Finally, the age-old debate can be settled once and for all. Anyone seeking proof of the distinction between "ping-pong" and table tennis need only to subpoena Andrew Baggaley as Exhibit A. The 37-year-old Englishman is both the current and all-time champion of the former, a matter settled yearly at the World Championship of Ping Pong. The sandpaper racket-only tournament is the brainchild of British businessman Barry Hearn, the impresario whose Matchroom Sport company transformed darts from a casual parlor game into a big-money TV spectacle. Despite the extremely strong international field of professional and semi-pro players, the defending champion Baggaley has won a record four world titles in the event's nine-year history. Baggaley is clearly the world's best ping-pong player. Therefore, one arguing for the interchangeability of "ping pong" and "table tennis" would hope that Baggaley enjoys a similarly lofty world table tennis ranking. They would then be disappointed to scroll all the way down to #757 before finding Baggaley in the ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking. Gavin Rumgay, the charismatic Scotsman ranked #158 in men's table tennis, is a frequent World Championship of Ping Pong entrant. He has, however, yet to translate the finely honed mechanics of his table tennis game to the sandpaper racket. This weekend, Baggaley, Rumgay and 22 other top ping-pong players will gather for a new challenge, the World Ping Pong Masters. Also organized under the aegis of Matchroom Sport, the two-day, single-elimination tournament at Ricoh Arena in Coventry, England will offer $102,000 in prize money. Sabine Winter, the German national team member ranked #126 among the women of the world in table tennis, will make her ping pong debut. "Since our success with the World Championship and the range of viewership Ping Pong draws in, it seems a shame to only promote just the one event a year," says Emily Frazer, Managing Director of Matchroom Multi Sport. "Table tennis is a world known sport but switching to a hardbat allows for a different strategy of the game, slower shots and potentially longer rallies affording better viewership to a casual sports fan," she continued. "We have received a lot of interest from table tennis players who may not have made the switch to a hardbat before." While the terms "table tennis" and "ping-pong" may inextricably intertwined in the public mind, those who take the distinction seriously will find this weekend's display not only diverting, but illustrative.

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