(by Steve Hopkins)

While little changed at the top of the Rankings, there are two big jumps with new names making appearances this week in the World Top 50.  Canada’s Edward Ly on the strength of his Pan Am win jumps 140 places all the way up to No. 37 and Timo Boll on the strength of his win in Doha jumps 137 spots to No. 45.  The wins are important to each player.  For Edward Ly, he is now the highest ranked player in North America, passing teammate Eugene Wang (No. 67) as well as jumping over Americans Jishan Liang (No. 152) and Ma Jinbao (No. 113).  For Timo Boll, the win moves him from Germany’s 12th ranked player all the way up to their fifth (which may be the difference between participating in a seventh Olympic Games, or watching from home).

At the top of the Rankings, the Chinese Wall of five players remains unchanged.  Fan Zhendong, Wang Chuqin, Ma Long, Liang Jingkun, and Lin Gaoyuan are 1-5 in that order.  Lin Yun-Ju is currently the sixth player with Calderano, Felix Lebrun, Harimoto, and Lin Shidong rounding out the Top 10.

The top non-Chinese player is Lin Yun-Ju (No. 6).  The top non-Asian player is Hugo Calderano (No. 7).  The top European player is Felix Lebrun (No. 8) – and Felix is also the top ranked penholder and the highest ranked junior (at Age 17).

As we look towards the Olympics this Summer, its also important to begin to compare teams (which will be groups of 3 players).  Obviously China is in great shape as they’ll be able to pull 3 players from the World Top 5 – perhaps even lining up the best match-ups against other difficult teams.  But after China, things get more interesting.  Germany has Dang Qiu at No. 11, Ovtcharov at No. 12, and Franziska at No. 28 giving them a combined average ranking of 17.  Sweden’s top ranked player is Truls Moregard at No. 16, but he has two other players grouped very closely to him – Anton Kallberg (No. 17) and Matttias Falck (No. 21) giving them a combined average ranking of 18.  Korea has Jang Woojin (No. 13), Lim Jonghoon (No. 18), and Lee Sang Su (No. 26) giving them a combined average ranking of 19. Felix Lebrun is No. 8 and his two highest ranked teammates would be Alexis Lebrun (No. 22) and Simon Gauzy (No. 30) for a combined average ranking of 20.  Japan has Harimoto at No. 9 and teammates Shunsuke Togami (No. 23) and Sora Matsushima (No. 33) could give Japan a combined average ranking of 21.6. Lin Yun-Ju is No. 6 but his two highest ranked teammates would be Kao Cheng-Jui (No. 32) and Chuang Chih-Yuan (No. 35) for a combined average ranking of  24.33.

Of course, an average ranking based upon the top three players is how seeding will be done, but having two players that perform well could be enough – so right now would that be Qiu/Ovtcharov at 11.5 average or Harimoto/Togami at 11 average or Lebrun/Lebrun at 15 average or Moregard/Kallberg at 16.5 or any number of other possibilities.  Keep an eye on the rankings as players jockey to make their country’s teams and as country’s jockey for the best seeding.

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