They live in a world built for right-handers, but there's no doubt southpaws have the edge in certain sports.

Key points: Left-handedness bestows a competitive edge in time-pressured sports

Left-handedness bestows a competitive edge in time-pressured sports Just 10 per cent of the population is left-handed

Just 10 per cent of the population is left-handed Lefties are over-represented in elite baseball pitchers, cricket bowlers and table tennis players

Lefties are over-represented in elite baseball pitchers, cricket bowlers and table tennis players Less time-pressured sports, such as tennis, badminton and squash, have lower rates of left-handers

And to fully exploit the advantages of being left-handed, they'd do well to focus on table tennis, cricket or baseball over tennis, squash and badminton, new analysis suggests.

Florian Loffing from the University of Oldenburg in Germany tallied the number of left-handers in ball game world rankings.

He found sports with high time pressure — that is, a shorter period between the ball bouncing between racquets, or leaving a bowler or pitcher's hand and striking the bat — were also those with the most lefties.

Table tennis, for instance, is an incredibly fast game. Dr Loffing found 26 per cent of top men and 19 of top women were lefties — twice that of the normal population rate of 10 per cent.

Chinese table tennis player and lefty Xu Xin is ranked third in the world. ( Getty Images: Visual China Group )

Around 30 per cent of baseball pitchers were left-handed, as were nearly 22 per cent of cricket bowlers.

But badminton, squash and tennis left-handed rates approached or dropped below the average population rate, he reported in the journal Biology Letters.

Evolutionary benefits to left-handedness

The work refines the "fighting hypothesis" of left-handed evolution.

Being a minority, southpaws have the element of surprise in a fight and can bamboozle their opponent, who might be used to fighting righties.

It's thought this is why lefties are overrepresented in "interactive" sports, such as cricket, but not in non-interactive sports, such as snooker.

Dr Loffing also wondered if faster sports, which give opponents less time to react after a ball leaves a pitcher's hand or whizzes back over the net after a return shot, might give lefties even more of an advantage.

He collected handedness data for the top 100 tennis, table tennis, badminton and squash players, the top 100 Test cricket bowlers, and the top pitchers in Major League Baseball, from 2009 to 2014.

Czechoslovak-American tennis legend Martina Navratilova is left-handed, but being a lefty isn't associated with much advantage in tennis. ( Getty Images: Sean M. Haffey )

While time pressure isn't the only factor at play when it comes to lefty-domination, "it's one important point to consider when trying to understand why left-handers can have an advantage," he said.

In the upper echelons of squash, for instance, there are relatively few elite left-handers.

But this might also be due to the fact that opponents don't directly face each other, rendering any left-hander advantage moot.

Maximise sporting success

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw reached the majors at just 20 years old. Did his left arm help him on his way? ( Getty Images: Sean M. Haffey )

Being left-handed definitely helps sportspeople in some way, shape or form, Victoria University sports scientist Damian Farrow said — to a point.

"When you get to the elite level it's not as strong an effect," he said.

"The higher up you go, the better [your opponents] are at working you out pretty damn quick."

So if you're a young left-hander and a bit of an all-rounder, how do you exploit these findings to maximise your chances of sporting success?

Dr Loffing — who writes with his left hand but plays tennis with his right — recommended leaning towards table tennis or becoming a baseball pitcher or cricket bowler.

And when it comes to team sports, left-handers might also take advantage of preferential selection.

For Professor Farrow — a "proud left-hander" — it would be a matter of switching sports each year.

"I would work my way through each sport at a lower skill level, where my left-handedness will have more of an effect on my opponent," he laughed.

"One way of looking at it is to go and play C-grade tennis, win, then the next season, play C-grade cricket."