(by Steve Hopkins)
How has the Olympics affected the ITTF rankings? The Week 33 rankings were released last Wednesday, and there is some small movement throughout the Top 25.
Fan Zhendong has remained World No. 1, despite falling to Ma Long in Men’s Singles. Ma Long has moved up to No. 2, jumping over Xu Xin. Harimoto held his spot at No. 4, despite being upset in Men’s Singles. Lin Yun-Ju has moved up to No. 5. He is followed by Lin Gaoyuan (who has fallen one slot to No. 6 while idle- as he did not play in the Olympics). Dimitrij Ovtcharov rides his Bronze Medal performance up to No. 7 – a rise that continues over time which has moved him from 11th all the way up to now being the top European player in the rankings. While Ovtcharov continues to rise, Calderano has fallen another slot – dropping from his highest point of 6th back to 8th. The final two spots in the Top 10 are Mattias Falck and Timo Boll. USA’s Kanak Jha holds tight at No. 30 and Nikhil Kumar jumped up 9 spots to No. 168.
On the Women’s side, Chen Meng maintained her No. 1 position while Sun Yingsha jumped over Mima Ito to go to No. 2. Ito falls to No. 3. The next four slots are Chinese women (Wang, Ding, Zhu, Liu), followed by Cheng I-Ching, Kasumi Ishikawa, and Feng Tianwei. Lily Zhang and Jennifer Wu remain the top two US players at No. 32 and No. 35. Liu Juan moves up 117 slots to No. 332.
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