by Ian Marshall, Editor
Undoubtedly the name to attract the attention is that of Peru’s Carlos Fernandez, to the very best of my knowledge no player from Latin America has ever topped any world order produced by International Table Tennis Federation. He heads the Under 15 Boys’ Rankings.
Formerly, at no.10, he appears ahead of Hong Kong’s Yiu Kwan To, Germany’s Mike Hollo, India’s Payas Jain and Japan’s 11 year old Sora Matsushima. Notable names that are now over age include the Chinese duo of Zeng Beixun and Kuang Li in addition to Japan’s Hiroto Shinosuke, Poland’s Maciej Kubik and Iran’s Radin Khayyam.
Conversely, the new name at the top of the Under 18 Boys’ World Ranking hails from a country that is no stranger to holding such an exalted position. China’s Xiang Peng occupies first place ahead of colleague Xu Yingbin; next in line is Sweden’s Truls Moregard, followed by Singapore’s Pang Yew En Koen and Iran’s Amin Ahmadian.
Noteworthy names who move out of the listings are Kanak Jha of the United States, China’s Xu Haidong and Wang Chuqin, alongside Ioannis Sgouropoulos of Greece, Egypt’s Youssef Abdel-Aziz, Romania’s Cristian Pletea and India’s Manav Vikash Thakkar.
Meanwhile, for Minnie Soo Wai Yam it is a return to the position she held for the first three months of 2018; she is listed in top spot on the Under 21 Women’s World Rankings being ahead of the Japanese trio formed by Miyu Nagasaki, Miyuu Kihara and Satsuki Odo. Notably China’s Chen Ke and Wang Yidi, alongside Japan’s Saki Shibata depart the age group.
Changes, not at the top of the Under 21 Men’s World Rankings where the top three places remain the same, Japan’s Yuto Kizukuri continues to head the order with Slovenia’s Darko Jorgic and Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yun-Ju being once again the next in line.
Similarly it is the status quo on the Under 15 Girls’ World Rankings; the top three names in the guise of China’s Kuai Man and Chen Yi remain the same with Romania’s Elena Zaharia once again in third spot.
No changes amongst the top three names, in the Under 18 Girls’ World Rankings, it is no change for the top name. China’s Shi Xunyao retains first place being now followed by Amy Wang of the United States, Russia’s Mariia Tailakova and Hong Kong’s Lee Ka Yee. Notably, Qian Tianyi and Sun Yingsha, also from China, move out of the age group, as do Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz, Serbia’s Sabina Surjan, Chinese Taipei’s Su Pei-Ling and India’s Archana Girish Kamath.
Wednesday 2nd January: Complete World Rankings