Shanghai, China -- Hollywood actress Susan Sarandon took to the ping pong table in Shanghai on Saturday to do her part to promote the sport and her New York table tennis club.
Sarandon, a co-owner of the Manhattan tennis club "SPiN", took part in a friendly match with an amateur team from Shanghai with five of her team members from New York.
The match was part of the Volkswagen 2011 China versus World Team Challenge table tennis tournament that features some of the top ping pong players competing against each other.
But the friendly match between the New York and Shanghai amateurs took place in a less formal setting, with a fun atmosphere and teams taking turns to field different players once every four points was scored.
Sarandon started the match brightly as the crowd cheered the actress on with her every stroke but she failed to take points away from her Shanghai opponent.
Special rules were drawn for the friendly match with the first team to break 40 points being declared the winner.
The match was a close tie with players from both sides fighting back every time one side took a lead. Sarandon closed the match missing a stroke as the Shanghai players won the game 41 to 39.
Despite the loss, Sarandon said she enjoyed the game and was hoping it would help spread her own love of ping pong to other Americans.
"I love that in ping pong, it goes across age and gender and size. I love watching little girls beat great big muscular guys. And I love how fast it is," she said.
"I think in the United States, those of us at Spin are trying to make it more popular as a social exchange with people because of that, because it cuts across every demographic that there is," she added.
SPiN was created by ping pong fan Jonathan Bricklin, who was also part of the team playing in the Shanghai match.
Besides the ping pong match, Sarandon was also in attendance at the Shanghai International Film Festival held earlier in June.
CBS