Last year, Alexander Flemming held glory in his hand, only to watch a familiar foe snatch it away. The World Championship of Ping Pong, a yearly big-money spectacle, is differentiated from table tennis by the mandatory use of archaic sandpaper rackets. The niche sport, featuring sudden-death games to 15, has been dominated by a handful of players in its decade-long history. Russia's Maxim Shmyrev won the first three editions before England's Andrew Baggaley began racking up titles. Baggaley first faced Germany's Alexander ‘The Flash’ Flemming in the 2015 final, Baggaley's first championship. Baggaley then cemented his legacy by beating Shmyrev in 2016. Flemming suffered another frustrating loss in the finals in 2017, this time to China's Yan Weihao. Baggaley would rally to tie Shmyrev's record with his third win in 2019. In the 2020 final, Flemming again met Baggaley in the final. The defending champion Baggaley enjoyed the support of the highly partisan English fans, but Flemming was on a mission, winning the first and third games, 15-14. Baggaley, of course, was not there by accident, leveling the match with 15-8 scores in the second and fourth games. In the deciding fifth game, Baggaley pressed his advantage to secure a 14-11 lead, and with it four match points in the sudden-death duel. Flemming valiantly staved off three match points to produce the most dramatic score possible, double match point. At 14-all, Flemming held the serve and a chance to exorcise a host of personal demons. Flemming's short topspin serve elicited a forehand chop-block from Baggaley, which Flemming weakly flipped with his forehand. Baggaley pounced with an inside-out backhand for a winner, and with it his record-breaking fourth championship. Flemming has had a year to agonize about what might have been. Even with ample time to prepare for a rematch in the COVID-curtailed off-season, studying film was simply too painful. "I couldn’t watch the last World Championship final seriously until last week because it was really horrible afterwards, to be so close and then be stopped by the legend of ping pong," Flemming confessed today under decidedly different circumstances. Flash forward to the World Ping Pong Masters, a new tournament from the makers of the World Championship of Ping Pong. Played in a secure bubble at Ricoh Arena in Coventry, England, the two-day tilt saw 24 of the world's best "pongers" battle for $102,000 in prizes. Despite the presence of actual table tennis professionals such as Sabine Winter of Germany and Scotland's Gavin Rumgay, it was once again Alexander ‘The Flash’ Flemming and now four-time World Champion Andrew Baggaley in the final. With a second chance at a second chance, ‘The Flash’ lived up to his heroic nickname and quickly dispensed Baggaley in straight sets, 15-12, 15-10, 15-9. "It is pure happiness to beat such a great player,” Flemming gushed. “It was possibly my best ever match." While Flemming savors his years-in-the-making victory, it is now Baggaley who must fight for redemption. With the original World Championship of Ping Pong still to be scheduled for 2021, the ever-evolving sandpaper saga is only getting more intriguing.

More at World Championship of Ping Pong