Hubert Ripoll, author with Guy Azémar and Jean-François Stein of "Effects of the Ocular's Dominance on the Eye-Hand Coordination in Sport Duals' (Sport and Science Review, 2008).

Certainly not the element of surprise, since a right-handed player has about a 50% chance of fighting a leftie, at least at the higher levels. It seems rather to be related to a neurological advantage.

This theory was developed by Guy Azémar, former doctor of the Fencing Federation and former member of the International Medical Commission. His research has shown that not all lefties succeed in combat sports, such as table tennis or tennis. But they do excel in sports that require the dominance of the right eye.

Azémar has demonstrated that such individuals take in visual information more quickly. He draws these conclusions based on neuro-anatomy, which shows that fine movements from each hand are controlled by the opposite eye. In this manner, lefties who are right-eye dominant have an advantage whilst using their left hand.

A complementary investigation shows that fencers manifest this tendency in their superior performance.