table tennis players vs paddlers

I'm only guessing that it would be 'players' in the US. I don't believe I've ever read an article on the subject, so I'm only guessing.

A table tennis racket is also called a "paddle" or "bat". The USA generally uses the term "paddle" while British English speakers use the term "bat". I have never heard of players being called "paddlers". Note that (at least in Britain) table tennis is often called "ping pong".

Thanks, contrex and roger.

Unrelated to the question, but ping pong sounds like a game. Table tennis is a sport - or so it seems to me.

The correct title for the sport in the UK and most of the rest of the world is "table tennis". This is because "ping pong" is a trade mark, number 233177, registered by the London toy importers and manufacturers Hamley Brothers on 20 September 1900 for their version of table tennis manufactured by John Jaques & Son. It is for this reason that the name "ping pong" cannot legally be used in UK to describe the sport of table tennis. Originally, there were both a "Ping Pong Association" and a "Table Tennis Association", established within a few days of one another in December 1901, but they merged in 1903 when the obligations towards the owners of the "ping pong" trade mark became too onerous. There were further problems of a similar nature when the sport, which had been dormant in most parts of the UK from 1904, became active again around 1922. "Ping pong" is still the official title of the sport in a few jurisdictions around the world and principally in China. Other trade marks were also registered including "Whiff-Waff" by Slazenger & Sons on 31 December 1900 and erroneously referred to by Boris Johnson in his infamous speech at the closing ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games. The earliest registered trade mark was "Gossima" by John Jaques & Son on 16 July 1891 and the earliest known equipment (apart from Foster's compendium of games in 1890 that included a version of tennis on a table) was produced under this name.