(by Steve Hopkins)

China’s Wang Chuqin and Lin Shidong will finish 2025 at the top of the World Rankings.  There’s no surprise that the two most accomplished players of 2025 finish in these two top slots, or that both are Chinese.  The bigger surprise for China may be that only three Chinese players are in the top 10 and only four are in the Top 20 (Liang Jingkun is No. 7, and Xiang Peng is No. 11).

Hugo Calderano is in third, just 100 points ahead of Tomokazu Harimoto in fourth and only 335 points ahead of Truls Moregard who is in fifth.  The rest of the Top 10 are Felix Lebrun, Liang Jingkun, Sora Matsushima, Alexis Lebrun, and Dang Qiu.  USA’s Kanak Jha is No. 22, and the top player in North America.  Quadri Aruna is the top player from Africa at No. 28.

The Women’s rankings do not have the same diversity as the men.  The top five players are Chinese (Yingsha, Manyu, Kuai, Xingtong, Yidi), and a sixth Chinese player (Chen Yi) is in the Top 10.  Three of the remaining 4 players near the top are Japanese (Harimoto at No. 6, Mima Ito at 9, and Hayata at 10) and Zhu Yuling from Macao is 7th.  The top non-Asian player is Sabine Winter of Germany at No. 17.  The top player in the South America is Bruna Takahashi at No. 19, Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico is No. 20, and the top American is Lily Zhang at No. 35.

The next big event on the calendar is January 7-11 as the WTT Champions both closes out the 2025 year and opens 2026 with a bang.  The event will be in Doha, Qatar and all but 2 of the World Top 20 will be competing.  Kanak Zha will be there representing the USA.  Absent top players include Wang Chuqin (World No. 1) and World No. 19 Lee Sang Su.

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