Both Li Jie and Hitomi Sato are naturally defensive players and prefer to counter-attack rather than push the tempo. The duo were involved in a bizarre rally during their match at the Seamaster 2017 World Tour which lasted for 10 minutes and 766 shots – the longest rally in the history of modern-day table tennis since 1937, when the ITTF started keeping its official record. The rally could have gone on longer if not for a second ball which was accidentally dropped in the play area.

“I didn’t realise that the rally went on for so long. After that my coach threw a ball into the court, and the umpires interrupted the game.

According to the Guinness World Records, the longest table tennis rally, which lasted 8 hours 40 mins and 5 secs, was played on 23 March 2014 between Britons Daniel Ives and Peter Ives. However, it was a casual game that was aimed at breaking the previous world record. According to the ITTF, which has kept modern-day records since 1937, the longest rally took place at the 1936 world championships in Prague. Poland's Alojzy Ehrlich faced Paneth Farkas of Romania, and won a point after the ball crossed the net more than 12,000 times following 2hr 12min of play.

As a result of the rally, the “expedite system” was implemented for the remainder of the match. The system hands over the point to the receiver if a rally goes beyond 13 shots, forcing the server to be more aggressive.