ITTF November Rankings: Fan is First of Four Chinese at Top

(by Steve Hopkins)

The Top 10 players from October have all stayed in the Top 10 in November – but the order has shifted for six of the world’s best men. Fan Zhendong has moved up to overtake Xu Xin for the top spot – and advantage of under 100 points (16,250 to 16,160). Lin Gaoyuan has moved up a spot to No. 3 and Ma Long has fallen one position to No. 4. The first non-Chinese player is Tomokazu Harimoto at No.5 and he is followed by Hugo Calderano, Liang Jingkun, Timo Boll, Mattias Falck and Lin Yun-Ju.

Popular players Koki Niwa, Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Jun Mizutani hold the 11-13 positions in the rankings. Hugo Calderano (No. 6) is the only player in the Top 10 from outside Asia or Europe. Quadri Aruna is the top African player at No. 20. USA’s Kanak Jha (No. 26) holds the third highest ranking outside Asia and Europe. Other players of interest include Marcos Madrid of Mexico (No. 85), Brian Afanador of Puerto Rico (No. 92), Jeremy Hazin of Canada (No. 153), Daniel Gonzalez of Puerto Rico (No. 154), and Nikhil Kumar of the USA (No. 179).

The top six in the world on the Women’s side are all Chinese. Chen Meng has held on to the top spot, but Liu Shiwen and Sun Yingsha of bolted up 3 spots each to claim No. 2 and No. 3 respectively. Mima Ito of Japan is the first non-Chinese player. Tianwei Feng of Singapore is the only new woman in the Top 10 list – she debuts this month at No. 9 (up from No. 12 in October).

Petrissa Solja of Germany is the top ranked European woman at No. 15. Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico is the top ranked player from outside Asia or Europe at No. 24. Mo Zhang of Canada is No. 26, Lily Zhang has jumped 15 spots to No. 33, and Jennifer Wu is No. 37 giving USA two women in the World’s Top 40. Other players of interest include Puerto Rico’s Melanie Diaz at No. 66, Canada’s Alicia Cote who is ranked No. 156 and USA’s Amy Wang at No. 171.

With the World Team Cup and the Austrian Open Platinum Tour event both this month, we can expect more movement in the rankings in December. Check in at ButterflyOnline.com for table tennis news and results.