(by Steve Hopkins)

After a busy month of October, there have been some changes at the top of the World Rankings.  Fan Zhendong continues to dominate – his 7700 points is a full 3300 ahead of second place, so he will end the year at No. 1 (again).  Ma Long holds his second position (with 4400), but Chuqin has moved all the way up to No. 3 and he is only 75 points behind Ma Long.  Chuqin’s run has been amazing – with two wins at major events – he started October as World No. 11 and now has a strong position at World No. 3.

Harimoto is at No. 4, Moregard is No. 5.  There is a sizeable drop off in points to Liang Jingkun at No. 6 (who was World No. 3 when he was suspended for the rest of 2022).  Hugo Calderano is No. 7, Lin Yun-Ju is No. 8, and Dimitrij Ovtcharov is World No. 9 and again is Germany’s No. 1.  Darko Jorgic rounds out the World Top 10 – and Spots 11-15 belong to Dang Qiu, Timo Boll, Lin Gaoyuan, Patrick Franziska, and Quadri Aruna.  TeamUSA’s Kanak Jha is up 6 spots to World No. 22.

China and Japan dominate the Women’s rankings.  It would actually be more accurate to say that China dominates the Women’s rankings and that Japan holds a strong position ahead of all other team. Four Chinese women are at the top: Sun Yingsha, Chen Meng, Wang Manyu, and Wang Yidi.  Then Mima Ito and Hina Hayata are No. 5 and 6.  Then China’s Chen Xingtons is No. 7 and Japan’s Kasumi Ishikawa is No. 8.  Doo of Hong Kong and Ying Han of Germany round out the top 10.  Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz is No. 11 and Lily Zhang is up 11 spots to World No. 25.

Most of the major events have already occurred this year – but that doesn’t mean there won’t still be changes…  Kanak Jha hopes to use the Fort Lauderdale feeder to move into the Top 20, Harimoto’s recent successes puts No. 3 or maybe even No. 2 in play, and there’s still an invitational in Germany with lots of European stars playing as well.

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