Site Products
Boll and Butterfly: March World Rankings

Boll and Butterfly: March World Rankings

(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

 

Latest News

Team Canada U19 Girls Secure Gold at Pan Am Youth Championship

August 31, 2025
(by Bowmar Sports, photo ITTF America) Canada’s U19 Girls’ Table Tennis Team made headlines at the 2025 ITTF… Read More

TTBL: Kanak Starts Strong, Zhendong Faulters in First Week of German League

August 31, 2025
(by Steve Hopkins) USA’s Kanak Jha was one of four players to start the German League season 2-0. … Read More

Be Part of the MLTT Rally Crew

August 29, 2025
(by: Major League Table Tennis) Bring your energy and love for the game Major League Table Tennis kicks… Read More

When Do Most Errors Happen?

August 29, 2025
Robot plays short backspin to Backhand, Jhon Backhand push to long Backhand, robot plays very spinny topspin to… Read More

Back Up a Little Bit More

August 27, 2025
Robot plays short backspin ball to Forehand, Jhon Forehand push to long Forehand, robot plays very spinny topspin… Read More

My Road To The 2025 US National Champion by Sally Moyland

August 26, 2025
(by Sally Moyland) I was leading 3:1 in sets in the women’s single final at the US National… Read More

Take the Ball Off the Bounce

August 25, 2025
Robot plays short backspin to Forehand, Jhon Forehand push to long Forehand, robot plays very spinny topspin to… Read More

Eleven Tips For Playing Against a Quicker Opponent

August 25, 2025
(By Larry Hodges) We’ve all had those matches where the opponent was just quicker, and we felt rushed… Read More
View All News

Get the latest from Butterfly

Stay “In The Loop” with Butterfly professional table tennis equipment, table tennis news, table tennis technology, tournament results, and We Are Butterfly players, coaches, clubs and more.