(by Steve Hopkins)

As we start the last month of the year, Fan Zhendong has cemented himself at the top of the rankings.  In fact, after winning the World Championships, Fan (at 12645) has a 2135 point lead over second place Ma Long and the separation between Ma Long (10510) and third place Xu Xin (8630) is almost as large.

Hugo Calderano is now in fourth, with Harimoto, Lin Yun-Ju, Lin Gaoyuan, and Liang Jingkun in the 5-8 positions.  Germany’s Ovtcharov and Boll round out the top 10.  Mattias Falck is down one position at No. 11 followed by Jang Woojin, Aruna, Pitchford, Youngsik and Franziska.

USA’s Kanak Jha is back into the Top 30, moving up three spots to No. 28.  Despite a run all the way to the Final last weekend, Truls Moregard is still outside the Top 30 at No. 31.

The Women’s rankings have stayed more stable.  Wang Yidi jumps up four spots to No. 6, and Kasumi Ishikawa is up two spots to No. 7, but all of the Top 5 have stated stable (Chen Meng, Sun Yingsha, Mima Ito, Wang Many, Ding Ning).  USA’s Lily Zhang stays at No. 30 and Jennifer Wu is at No. 44.

The World Cup starts today, so expect some more changes at the top of the rankings before the end of the year.

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