by Ian Marshall, Editor

Alongside Cho Seungmin there is notable progress for Japan’s Mizuki Oikawa, Egypt’s Ahmed Ali Saleh, Portugal’s João Monteiro and Croatia’s Andrej Gacina.

• Cho Seungmin from no.113 to no.65 (48 places)
• Mizuki Oikawa from no.91 to no.61 (30 places)
• Ahmed Ali Saleh from no.101 to no.85 (16 places)
• João Monteiro from no.88 to no.78 (10 places)
• Andrej Gacina from no.53 to no.44 (9 places)

Meanwhile, on the women’s rankings, a list that witness China’s Chen Meng retaining the top spot, once again ahead of colleague Sun Yingsha and Japan’s Mima Ito; next in line being Wang Manyu and Liu Shiwen who change places, the measure of progress amongst the leading names is less marked.

Singapore’s Zeng Jian, who climbs 10 places makes the most significant advance. Also, there is measured progress for Stéphanie Loeuillette of France, China’s Zhang Rui and Liu Fei in addition to the Japanese duo of Maki Shiomi and Honoka Hashimoto.

• Zeng Jian from no.100 to no.90 (10 places)
• Stéphanie Loeuillette from no.99 to no.90 (9 places)
• Zhang Rui from no.82 to no.74 (8 places)
• Maki Shiomi from no.97 to no.89 (8 places)
• Honoka Hashimoto from no.46 to no.39 (7 places)
• Liu Fei from no.79 to no.72 (7 places)

Progress and there are those in the top 100 who perhaps have not made giant strides but are enjoying the highest listing of the careers.

For the men, the names to note are China’s Zhao Zihao, Korea Republic’s An Jaehyun, Brazil’s Vitor Ishiy, Egypt’s Ahmed Ali Saleh and Argentina’s Gaston Alto alongside the Japanese duo of Yukiya Uda and Mizuki Oikawa.

• Zhao Zihao no.22, previous best no.24 (January 2020)
• An Jaehyun no.35, previous best no.39 (January 2020)
• Yukiya Uda no.50, previous best no.53 (December 2019)
• Vitor Ishiy no.56, previous best no.59 (December 2019)
• Mizuki Oikawa no.61, previous best no.74 (June 2018)
• Ahmed Ali Saleh no.85, previous best no.89 (November 2019)
• Gaston Alto no.95, previous best no.96 (December 2019)

Similarly for the women, there are career highs for China’s Wang Yidi and Qian Tianyi, as well as for Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz, Brazil’s Bruna Takahashi, Japan’s Miyuu Kihara and Wu Yue of the United States.

Also there are milestones for Egypt’s Yousra Helmy, Poland’s Natalia Bajor and Thailand’s Orawan Paranang.

• Wang Yidi no.12, previous best no.13 (January 2020)
• Adriana Diaz no.20, previous best no.21 (January 2020)
• Qian Tianyi no.24, previous best no.30 (January 2020)
• Wu Yue no.30, previous best no.33 (September 2019)
• Bruna Takahashi no.45, previous best no.49 (December 2019)
• Miyuu Kihara no.49, previous best no.51 (September 2019)
• Yousra Helmy no.80, previous best no.83 (December 2019)
• Natalia Bajor no.86, previous best no.90 (December 2019)
• Orawan Paranang no.87, previous best no.87 (December 2019)

Higher listings and of course there are those who must make way.

In the men’s world rankings, the major casualties amongst the top 100 names are Russia’s Alexander Shibaev, China’s Yu Ziyang and Hungary’s Bence Majoros.

• Alexander Shibaev from no.65 to no.93 (28 places)
• Yu Ziyang from no.93 to no.117 (24 places)
• Bence Majoros from no.59 to no.70 (11 places)

Meanwhile, for the women the players to suffer the greatest hurt are Austria’s Liu Jia, Ukraine’s Tetyana Bilenko and Portugal’s Fu Yu.

• Liu Jia from no.87 to no.106 (19 places)
• Tetyana Bilenko from no.86 to no.100 (14 places)
• Fu Yu from no.41 to no.54 (13 places)

The tournaments which are newly included are the 2019 United States Open and 2020 ITTF World Tour Platinum German Open; the tournament which has expired is the 2019 ITTF World Tour Hungarian Open.