(by Steve Hopkins)
There’s a new name at the top of the World Rankings, and it is an historic one. Sora Matsushima jumped two spots from No. 3 to claim World No. 1 for the first time. Matsushima is the first non-Chinese player to hold the top spot since Timo Boll in 2018. He is also the first Japanese man to be atop the World Rankings since Seiji Ono in July 1980 – that’s 46 years ago, older than half of the table tennis fans in Japan.
Matsushima’s first name, Sora, means “SKY” in Japanese and at just 19 years old the sky may be the limit for what he can accomplish. His rise bodes well not just for Matsushima but for Japan overall as Harimoto is World No. 3 and Togami is World No. 13 and Hiroto Shinozuka is not far behind at World No. 18. Japan joins Germany (Ovtcharov / Boll) and Sweden (Waldner / Persson) as the only countries other than China to have 2 players in the World Top 3 at the same time. Japan is in a strong position – and their stars are aged 25 or younger – and they have a new 16-year-old star making headlines named Kawakami who is racing towards the Top 50.
The shuffle at the top goes beyond the No. 1 spot. Felix Lebrun holds firm at World No. 2, Tomokazu Harimoto moves up one spot to No. 3, and Wang Chuqin – who has been a dominant No. 1 for months – drops to No. 4. That leaves China without a player in the Top 3. Japan now has two of the top three, and France’s Felix Lebrun is the other. This is something we have rarely seen in the modern era (likely not since 1989 with Waldner at No. 1, Persson at No. 2, and Poland’s Grubba at No. 3).
This rise did not come out of nowhere. Matsushima served notice in Chongqing earlier this year when he came from behind to upset then-World No. 1 Wang Chuqin 4-2. Matsushima then he pushed Wang to a seventh game in the World Cup Final in Macao, holding a 3-2 lead before Chuqin escaped. Since then, the young lefty has been steadily climbing. By late July he had reached a career-high No. 3, and he spent September at No. 3 with Harimoto right behind him at No. 4 before this week’s breakthrough.
The question now is whether Matsushima can hold on. The new rankings arrived just as the China Smash – the biggest Grand Slam event of the year – got underway, so while Matsushima opened his first event as World No. 1, he also is playing as the second seed in the event. He is already into the semifinals and with Grand Slam points on the line, expect to see him expand his lead before the next rankings are released.
Moving further down the rankings – Moregard is No. 5, Lin Yun-Ju is No. 6, and Calderano, Alexis Lebrun, Lin Shidong, and Dang Qiu round out the Top 10. And an note for American fans – USA’s Kanak Jha is up one spot to No. 24.
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