If you stand too close to the table, you will struggle to return balls which land very deep. You will have no space to play a stroke.Ping Pong

Instead, make sure you have some space between you and the table, something like 30cm-50cm. Now if the ball lands deep, you have more space to return the ball. If the ball is returned very short, you can still step in to get closer to the ball, but make sure you step back out again.