04/04/2011 – WANG Hao and LI Xiaoxia regain top positions on the latest International Table Tennis Federation World Ranking List following successful performances at the recent VOLKSWAGEN Cup Guangzhou. WANG Hao defeated Germany’s Timo BOLL
04/04/2011 – WANG Hao and LI Xiaoxia regain top positions on the latest International Table Tennis Federation World Ranking List following successful performances at the recent VOLKSWAGEN Cup Guangzhou. WANG Hao defeated Germany’s Timo BOLL and LI Xiaoxia’s impressive victory against another German player WU Jiaduo assured the two superstars from China enough points for each to respectively become world number one.
WANG Hao was world number one in December 2009 before being usurped by colleague MA Long. He first held the position in December 2004. Timo BOLL the man who has held the number one spot for the first three months of 2011 drops one place to number two. The next four places are occupied by Chinese players. ZHANG Jike and MA Lin both climb one place; the former is now at number three the latter at number four; the man to make way is MA Long. He drops two places from three to five. XU Xin remains at six and there is no position change for the next four who complete the top ten line up.
LEE Sang Su the surprise winner of the Men’s Singles title at the Polish Open in Wladyslawowo in March climbs from 70 to 42 and thus enjoys the highest ranking of his career; his previous best was number 50 in April and March last year. Other improvements to note are Russia’s Alexander SHIBAEV he jumps from 75 to 50 and the speedy 16 Year old from China LIn Gaoyuan moves from 94 to 77.
China’s LI Xiaoxia was previously at number one in February she once again changes places with 28 year old GUO Yan. GUO Yan occupied the number one spot in January and March. All change at the very top but in the immediate ensuing places there is no change. Japan’s Ai FUKUHARA who beat Hong Kong’s JIANG Huajun at the VOLKSWAGEN Cup before losing to LI Xiaoxia climbs one place to seven the highest world ranking of her career. She changes places with the Korean defender Kim Kyung Ah who drops one place to eight.
The World Ranking List was published on Monday 4th April.
Mens World Ranking
1 WANG Hao CHN (2)
2 Timo BOLL GER (1)
3 ZHANG Jike CHN (4)
4 MA Lin CHN (5)
5 MA Long CHN (3)
6 XU Xin CHN (=)
7 Jun MIZUTANI JPN (=)
8 Vladimir SAMSONOV BLR (=)
9 WANG Liqin CHN (=)
10 JOO Se Hyuk KOR (=)
Womens World Ranking
1 LI Xiaoxia CHN (2)
2 GUO Yan CHN (1)
3 DING Ning CHN (=)
4 GUO Yue CHN (=)
5 LIU Shiwen CHN (=)
6 FENG Tianwei SIN (=)
7 Ai FUKUHARA JPN (8)
8 KIM Kyung Ah KOR (7)
9 WU Yang CHN (11)
10 WANG Yuegu SIN (9)
(courtesy ITTF)