In your example I would have expected "ping poing player" to link to an article about the specific involved ping pong player.
Ouch, that's *my* pet peeve! Don't link to an article using text that could well be the title of another article. A generic phrase like "ping pong player" should only link to a generic article about ping pong players (or the player section of the ping pong article if we don't have an article dedicated to ping pong players). If you want to link to a specific player, use their name as the link text. Piping is great when using an alternative name for something or for using something in a different part of speech than the title of the article (redirects work just as well), it shouldn't be used for hiding what article is actually being linked to. You should be able to tell from the link text what to expect when you click on it.