ITTF Rankings: Fan, Xu, Harimoto Top the First 2019 Rankings
(by Steve Hopkins)
Fan Zhendong and Xu Xin maintained their top two spots in the January 2019 ITTF World Rankings. Tomakazu Harimoto has jumped up to third, riding the strength of his Grand Finals win in December. Lin Gaoyuan and Timo Boll round out the Top Five.
Brazil’s Hugo Calderano remains the top player in the Western Hemisphere at No. 6. Japan’s Jun Mizutani has moved up a couple of spots to break the Top. 10 again. China’s Liang Jingkun has jumped from 36 to 20. Dimitrij Ovtcharov has fallen out of the Top 10 – down to No. 13. Sweden’s Mattias Falk is now the second highest ranked European player at No. 13.
Kanak Jha is the top American at No. 51. Nicholas Tio and Nikhil Kumar are the second and third Americans in the rankings. Canada’s Eugene Wang is second in North America at No. 178, with Marko Medjugorac and Jeremy Hazin as the next two highest ranked Canadians. Brian Afanador is the top ranked player in Puerto Rico (No. 120) with Daniel Gonzalez and Ricardo Jimenez second and third.
On the women’s side, the names on the Top 10 list in January are the same as those on the list in December – However, the order is different in two spots on the list. Ding Ning and Zhu Yuling have swapped positions (Ding Ning is now No. 1 and Zhu Yuling is now No. 2). And Liu Shiwen and Wang Manyu have swapped positions as well (Liu is now No. 5 and Wang is now No. 6).
Canada’s Mo Zhang is the top North American player at No. 20. She is followed by five Americans: Jennifer Wu (No.46), Lily Zhang (No. 95), Angela Guan, Xinyue Wang, and Amy Wang. The next two ranked players in Canada are Alicia Cote and Ivy Liao. Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico leads the Latin and South American players with her ranking of No. 33.
No major changes in the world rankings are expected in February as January is a relatively light month on the world tour with just the Hungarian Open on the schedule. But there are 8 events in February including the World Cup and Euro Top 16, and 16 events in March. Overall, there are 135 scheduled ITTF events in 2019. This should be an exciting year.
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