Table tennis singles rules

Scoring a game

A game is won by the first player to reach 11 points, provided they lead by at least two. If both players reach 10 points, play continues past 11 until one player is two points clear — 12–10, 15–13, and so on, with no upper limit.

You win a point whenever your opponent fails to make a legal return: the ball bounces twice on their side, they hit it into the net or off the table, they volley it before it bounces, or they commit a service fault. There's no separate rule for singles here — this is identical to doubles.

Serve alternation

In singles, each player serves for two consecutive points, then the serve passes to the opponent for two points, and so on for the whole game — regardless of who wins each point. The score doesn't affect whose turn it is to serve; only the fixed two-point cycle does.

Once the score reaches 10–10, the two-point cycle is suspended for the rest of the game: from that point on, service changes after every single point, right through to the winning point.

Deuce and winning by two

"Deuce" isn't an official table tennis term the way it is in tennis, but players use it the same way — for a 10–10 tie, where the two-point win margin kicks in and serve changes every point. From 10–10, the game simply continues with the standard rules of who wins a point, but with serving alternating each time, until someone opens up a two-point gap.

There's no cap — a deuce game can theoretically run indefinitely, though in practice most end within a handful of extra points. The expedite system (13 consecutive returns forces a point to the receiver, once a game has run past ten minutes with fewer than 18 points scored) exists specifically to stop extreme defensive stalemates from dragging on, but it rarely comes into play in a deuce situation since deuce games are usually close and fast-moving rather than defensive.

How a match is decided

A match is a series of individual games, always an odd number so there's no possibility of a tie. Recreational and league matches most often use best-of-five (first to 3 game wins); higher-level and televised competition frequently uses best-of-seven (first to 4).

• Best-of-five: the first player to win 3 games takes the match.
• Best-of-seven: the first player to win 4 games takes the match.
• Players change ends of the table after every game.
• In the final, deciding game of a match, players also swap ends as soon as either player reaches 5 points — a rule that exists purely to cancel out any advantage from lighting, draughts or background at one end of the room.

The service-alternation and 10–10 rules described above apply independently to every game in the match, resetting each time a new game starts.

Lets and edge balls

A let stops the point without awarding it to either player, and the point is simply replayed with the same server. The most common cause is a served ball clipping the net and still landing legally on the receiver's side; a receiver who genuinely wasn't ready also earns a let, and so does outside interference like a ball rolling in from another table.

An edge ball — one that clips the top edge of the table's playing surface and deflects away, often sharply — is legal and the point continues. This rule catches out more casual players than any other single call: only the side of the table below the surface line is out; the top edge itself is in.