01 Nov 2018

Successful in Paris on Sunday 21st October at the Liebherr 2018 Men’s World Cup, on the Men’s World Rankings issued for November, China’s Fan Zhendong retains top spot for the eighth consecutive month, having risen to the top of the order for the first time in his career earlier this year in April.

He remains ahead of colleague Xu Xin and Germany’s Timo Boll, his immediate predecessor in March in the prized first place.

by Ian Marshall, Editor

The status quo at the top of the order, immediately below there are changes.

China’s Lin Gaoyuan and Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov, semi-finalists at the Liebherr 2018 Men’s World Cup, change places. Lin Gaoyuan is now at no.4, Dimitrij Ovtcharov one position lower.

Progress for Lin Gaoyuan, it is the same for Japan’s Tomokazu Harimoto. He advances two places to no.6; he is followed by Korea Republic’s Lee Sangsu and Hong Kong’s Wong Chun Ting; for Lee Sangsu it is the same as in October, for Wong Chun Ting a climb of one place.

However, it is the name of the player immediately below that catches the eye. Hugo Calderano climbs from no.11 to no.9 and thus becomes the first Brazilian to gain a top 10 listing; he usurps the legendary efforts of Ubiraci Rodrigues da Costa, better known as Biriba by some distance. After beating China’s Rong Guotuan, the defending champion, at the 1961 World Championships in Beijing, Biriba was listed at no.19 on the Men’s World Rankings. Now for Brazil and Latin America it is totally new horizons.

Significant progress for Hugo Calderano, equally completing the top 12 names, there are significant changes, very significant changes.

Japan’s Koki Niwa remains at no.10 one ahead of China’s Ma Long, the Olympic and World champion. Absent from the international scene since August, when he competed on the ITTF World Tour in the Czech Republic, he drops from no.6 to no.11; conversely for the next in line, there is quite resounding progress. Sweden’s Mattias Falck advances from no.19 no.12, a career high listing and the first Swede since 2003 to achieve a top 12 World Ranking, the most recent being in April 2003, when Peter Karlsson occupied the no.11 spot.

Meanwhile, further down the order, making significant progress, Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus climbs from no.30 to no.18, Panagiotis of Greece from no.70 to no.48; also amongst the top one hundred names, Paraguay’s Marcelo Aguirre moves from no.97 no.86, Japan’s Yukiya Uda from no.108 to no.90.

Rather differently, in the opposite direction the most significant names descending the order are Yukiya Uda’s colleague, Jun Mizutani and Egypt’s Omar Assar. Jun Mizutani drops from no.12 to no.19, Omar Assar from no.39 to no.53.

Latest World Rankings: Thursday 1st November 2018

World Ranking Fan Zhendong