(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)
With five players currently in the top 20 and a strangle hold on the world’s top position, China is often among the biggest story lines in the World Rankings. This week Wang Chuqin added to his massive points lead (now up by about 4200 points) while the second highest seeded Chinese player, Lin Shidong, had the largest drop in the Top 25 as he fell two spots to No. 5. Xiang Peng and Liang Jingkun both held their positions (No. 9 and No. 13). The biggest upward movement this week was Wen Ruibo who is now No. 17 – a meteoric rise over the last year for the Chinese teen.
The most interesting section of the rankings is positions 2 through 6 where only about 800 points separates five players (Moregard, Calderano, Harimoto, Shidong, and Felix Lebrun). As long as the points are that close, those players could shift positions with every major event. France has three players in the Top 20 (the Lebrun brothers and Gauzy), as does Germany (Qiu, Duda, and Franziska). The Korea Republic and Japan both have two players. USA’s Kanak Jha is currently World No. 28 – the second highest rated player outside of Asia and Europe (behind Hugo Calderano).
The top four players remained unchanged in the Women’s Rankings (Sun, Manyu, Xingtong, Yuling). Miwa Harimoto and Satsuki Odo of Japan were the only players in the Top 15 to move up. Harimoto slipped up 3 spots to World No. 5, and Odo moved up two positions to No. 11. Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz gained a spot and moved up to No. 18. USA’s Amy Wang (No. 40) and Lily Zhang (No. 42) are just 30 ranking points apart as the fourth and fifth highest ranked players outside of Asia or Europe.
Most of the upcoming tour events are Contender Series events that target mid-ranged players, so movement in the next few rankings will likely not affect the Top 20. The next big event on the tour schedule is the United States Smash at the end of June in Los Angeles.
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