It is for Lin Yun-Ju the highest of his career and reflects the immense progress made in the past year; last September he occupied the no.43 spot; somewhat differently for Chen Xingtong, she approaches her previous best. Just over one year ago in July she occupied the no.7 position.

Notable progress but at the very top of the order life remains the same.

The Chinese quartet comprising Xu Xin, Fan Zhendong, Ma Long and Lin Gaoyuan continue to hold the top four respective places ahead of Japan’s Tomokazu Harimoto and Brazil’s Hugo Calderano. Immediately below there is a change: Germany’s Timo Boll and China’s Liang Jingkun each climb one place. The player to give way is Sweden’s Mattias Falck, he drops from no.7 to no.9, being one place ahead of Lin Yun-Ju.

Japan’s Koki Niwa and Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov each advance one position to complete the top 12 names.

Dramatic progress

Progress for Lin Yun-Ju but amongst the top 100 names the players to make the most dramatic progress are China’s Zhao Zihao, beaten by Tomokazu Harimoto in the ITTF World Tour Bulgaria Open final, alongside Mexico’s Marcos Madrid, Romania’s Cristian Pletea, Ecuador’s Alberto Miño and Sweden’s Anton Källberg.

Marcos Madrid moves from no.86 to no.66, Cristian Pletea from no.115 to no.75; Alberto Miño from no.100 to no.75. Similarly, Anton Källberg advances from no.108 to no.88. Notably for Marcos Madrid, Cristian Pletea and Alberto Miño, it is the highest ranking of their careers.

Sun Yingsha joins colleagues

With no change at the top of the men’s order, it is the same on the women’s listings; the only difference when compared in August is that as opposed to China occupying the top five places, they occupy the top . Sun Yingsha advances one position and is now next in line to Chen Meng, Ding Ning, Zhu Yuling, Wang Manyu and Liu Shiwen.

Immediately following is the Japanese trio of Mima Ito, Kasumi Ishikawa and Miu Hirano. It is a rise of one place for Mima Ito and for Miu Hirano, while for Kasumi Ishikawa it is a drop of two positions; formerly Kasumi Ishikawa was named in the no.8 spot. A step up of one place for Mima Ito and Miu Hirano; it is the same for Cheng I-Ching who is now listed at no.10; Hong Kong’s Doo Hoi Kem and Singapore’s Feng Tianwei retain their places and complete the top 12 names.

Significant progress

Climbing the women’s rankings, lower down the order in leaps and bounds are Puerto Rico’s Melanie Diaz, Korea Republic’s Choi Hyojoo, China’s Gu Yuting and Chile’s Paulina Vega making most significant progress.

Melanie Diaz advances from no.88 to no.67, Choi Hyojoo from no.91 to no.69; in a similar vein Gu Yuting climbs from no.119 to no.75, Paulina Vega from no.100 to no.76.

New leaders

No changes at the very top of the order; on the under 18 boys’ and on the under 18 girls’ world rankings there are changes. Singapore’s Pang Yew En Koen, previously at no.4, now heads the list, replacing Russia’s Lev Katsman who drops one place. Success at the Hang Seng Hong Kong Junior and Cadet Open, Iran’s Amin Ahmadian is now at no.3; previously he stood at no.14.

Likewise on the girls’ list there is a new name at the very top; Amy Wang of the United States changes places with China’s Shi Xunyao, Poland’s Anna Wegrzyn once again completes the top three names.

Top places retained

Somewhat differently, on the under 15 boys’ and under 15 girls’ listings, there are no changes in the very top position.

China’s Chen Yuanyu and Kuai Man remain the respective leaders; next in line to Chen Yuanyu is Japan’s Sora Matsushima followed by Belgium’s Louis Laffineur. Notably Sora Matsushima advances two places, for Louis Laffineur it is one place lower.

Meanwhile, for the girls, in the elite positions there is no change at all; once again China’s Chen Yi and Romania’s Elena Zaharia are next in line.

World Rankings: September 2019