(By Steve Hopkins)
Boll and Butterfly: March World Rankings
The March World Rankings were released today, and the new No. 1 in the world is Timo Boll. He replaces German teammate, Dima Ovtcharov, at the top position. Boll, who turns 37 next week, is now the oldest player to achieve a No. 1 world ranking. His first time atop the rankings was in 2003 – fifteen years of excellence.
Boll rising to first means Ovtcharov has dropped – but his slide was only down to the No. 3 spot. With Boll and Ovtcharov at No. 1 and No. 3 in the rankings, Team Germany will be the top seed for the World Table Tennis Championships in Halmstad this April.
With Butterfly sponsoring both Boll and the German team, these rankings are good news for Team Butterfly. In addition to Boll, Butterfly players Kenta Matsudiara, Sangsu Lee, Tomokazu Harimoto, Marcos Freitas, and Jun Mizutani all remain in the Top 15.
Bowmar Sports/Butterfly players have moved up in the rankings as well. USA’s Kanak Jha continued his rise – leveraging his upset of World No. 7 Wong Chun Ting to move all the way from No. 88 up to No. 73 (No. 3 in the U18 Boys Ranking). Canada’s Mo Zhang rose from No. 32 to No. 25 in the Women’s rankings. Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz moved from No. 42 to No. 40, and USA’s Lily Zhang moved from No. 60 up to No. 56.
The full ITTF rankings can be found here.
3/2018 – General List – Men
| Ranking | Previous | Name | Assoc. | Ranking Pts. |
| 1 | 3 | BOLL Timo | GER | 15705 |
| 2 | 2 | FAN Zhendong | CHN | 15645 |
| 3 | 1 | OVTCHAROV Dimitrij | GER | 15465 |
| 4 | 4 | LIN Gaoyuan | CHN | 13974 |
| 5 | 5 | XU Xin | CHN | 13720 |
| 6 | 7 | WONG Chun Ting | HKG | 12890 |
| 7 | 6 | NIWA Koki | JPN | 12840 |
| 7 | 9 | GAUZY Simon | FRA | 12398 |
| 9 | 7 | MA Long | CHN | 11990 |
| 10 | 10 | MATSUDAIRA Kenta | JPN | 11835 |
3/2018 – General List – Women
| Ranking | Previous | Name | Assoc. | Ranking Pts. |
| 1 | 2 | ZHU Yuling | CHN | 16185 |
| 2 | 1 | CHEN Meng | CHN | 16170 |
| 3 | 4 | ISHIKAWA Kasumi | JPN | 13830 |
| 4 | 3 | FENG Tianwei | SGP | 13220 |
| 5 | 6 | ITO Mima | JPN | 13005 |
| 6 | 7 | HIRANO Miu | JPN | 12796 |
| 7 | 5 | WANG Manyu | CHN | 11949 |
| 8 | 8 | CHENG I-Ching | TPE | 11880 |
| 9 | 12 | CHEN Xingtong | CHN | 11412 |
| 10 | 11 | CHEN Szu-Yu | TPE | 11175 |
3/2018 – Men’s Team Ranking
| Ranking | Team Name | Ranking Pts. |
| 1 | Germany | 252 |
| 2 | China | 250 |
| 3 | Japan | 248 |
| 4 | France | 246 |
| 5 | Korea Republic | 244 |
| 6 | Chinese Taipei | 242 |
| 7 | Hong Kong | 240 |
| 8 | Portugal | 238 |
| 9 | Sweden | 236 |
| 10 | Brazil | 234 |
3/2018 – Women’s Team Ranking
| Ranking | Team Name | Ranking Pts. |
| 1 | China | 228 |
| 2 | Japan | 226 |
| 3 | Chinese Taipei | 224 |
| 4 | Hong Kong | 222 |
| 5 | Korea Republic | 220 |
| 6 | Romania | 218 |
| 7 | Austria | 216 |
| 8 | Singapore | 214 |
| 9 | Russia | 212 |
| 10 | Hungary | 210 |
