08 Jan 2021

New Year, new ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking!

Approved on 21 December 2020 by the ITTF Executive Committee, the now weekly ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking lists have been published for the first time under a brand-new name and structure with Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng starting 2021 as the best players in the world.

The transition from the ITTF World Rankings to the ITTF Table Tennis World Rankings commences with players retaining 80% of their December 2020 ITTF World Ranking points. These points will be progressively reduced by a further 10% every 7 weeks up to week 49, which means there is no change to the current top 5 players in the world.

ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking Top 5:

Men:

  1. Fan Zhendong (CHN)
  2. Xu Xin (CHN)
  3. Ma Long (CHN)
  4. Lin Gaoyuan (CHN)
  5. Tomokazu Harimoto (JPN)

 

Women:

  1. Chen Meng (CHN)
  2. Sun Yinghsa (CHN)
  3. Mima Ito (JPN)
  4. Wang Manyu (CHN)
  5. Ding Ning (CHN)

REFRESHED WORLD RANKING STRUCTURE

With the launch of WTT in 2021, the new rankings structure incorporates the Grand Smash, WTT Cup Finals, WTT Champions and WTT Contender Series events for the very first time, with the winner of Grand Smash events collecting 2000 ranking points and placing it at the same level as the WTTC and Olympics.

WTT Cup Finals winners will earn 1500 points, while 1000 points are on offer for WTT Champions events. The Contender Series splits into two categories, WTT Star Contender where players will compete for 600 ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking points while 400 points will be available at WTT Contender events.

The allocation of points by round also changes under the new structure, with players rewarded for their performance by round in a proportional, merit-based way based on the new event structure, including qualifying players being able to add any points earned in qualifying rounds their main draw ranking points.

The new ranking structure will create a fairer, progressive and more dynamic system that will contribute to greater fluctuation for players, while making it clearer for fans, media broadcasters and sponsors to understand where each event fits and allow WTT to tell the story of each season.

In a major change to the publications of the rankings, the ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking will now be published weekly on a Tuesday, that will create more variation in player entry lists and field compositions and lead to greater rankings fluctuations for players and engaging fans by creating more excitement through the rankings.

Performance at the WTT Youth Series will once again be incorporated in the new ranking structure with ranking points offered for those participating in the U/19 age category events and providing a platform that will help create a continuous journey through the tiers of the sport to become World Number 1.

The full Week 1 ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking can be found here

The new ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking Regulation can be found here

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