2011/09/27 by Yves Dominicy, Christophe Ley, Dominicy, Yves +3
Business, Management and Accounting · Decision Sciences · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Applications (stat.AP) #Consumer Market Behavior and Pricing #Efficiency Analysis Using DEA #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Mathematics #Probability (math.PR) #Sports Analytics and Performance
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1109.6628
openalex publication_date 2011/09/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We establish a general formula for the distribution of the score in table tennis. We use this formula to derive the probability distribution (and hence the expectation and variance) of the number of rallies necessary to achieve any given score. We use these findings to investigate the dependence of these quantities on the different parameters involved (number of points needed to win a set, number of consecutive serves, etc.), with particular focus on the rule change imposed in 2001 by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). Finally we briefly indicate how our results can lead to more efficient estimation techniques of individual players' abilities.