In a school sports club, $25$ students decided to participate in a table tennis singles tournament. Each time a student loses a match, they are eliminated from the tournament. What is the minimum number of matches required to determine the winner?

In a single-elimination tournament, every match produces exactly one loser who is immediately eliminated from the tournament.
To determine a single final winner out of $25$ participants, we need to eliminate all other players except the winner.

$$\text{Number of players to eliminate}=25-1=24$$

Since $1$ match eliminates exactly $1$ player, the total number of matches required is:

$$\text{Total matches}=24$$