World Rankings for March: Largely Stable at the Top
(by Steve Hopkins/Photo by ITTF)
The March rankings are out, and the Top 10 lists are largely stable. Xu Xin maintains his narrow lead over Fan Zhendong (a 345 point margin that amounts to approximately a 2% lead in total points). Ma Long is third, and Lin Gaoyuan is fourth. All of the positions in the TOP 10 are exactly the same as February, except that Timo Boll has moved up one spot to No.10. Ovtcharov fell one spot to No. 11.
Tomokazu Harimoto is at No. 5 – he is the highest non-Chinese player on the list. Hugo Calderano (No. 7) is the highest ranked non-Asian on he list. Mattias Falck (No. 8) is the highest European player on the list. Quadri Aruna (No. 18) is the top African player on the list. Kanak Jha (No. 25) is first North American to appear. Other Americans in the Top 250 players include Kai Zhang (No. 170), Nikhil Kumar (No. 180), and Nicholas Tio (No. 231). Zhou Xin, the third player selected for the US Team does not yet appear on the World Ranking list – but that will change as the team competes in international competitions.
The players on the Top 10 list for Women have not changed this month. There was a reshuffling of the 8/9/10 players as Cheng I-Cheng moved up two slots (from No. 10 to No. 8), but all of the other players have kept their position. The top four players are Chen Meng, Sun Yingsha, Mima Ito, and Wang Manyu.
Lily Zhang is the top American in the rankings at No. 28. Jennifer Wu is No. 31, and Amy Wang is No. 127. The US Olympic Team is Lily Zhang, Liu Juan, and Wang Huijing. In the current rankings, Liu Juan is No. 447 and Wang Huijing is No. 915. As the rankings are an accumulation of points in select events, the US Team ranking will increase as our players compete in more events.
March is a busy month on the tour with the Qatar Open, Oman Open, and Polish Open. The Qatar Open is a Platinum Tour featuring most of the top players and the other two events are Challenge Series events. The three events together should provide opportunity for ranking changes throughout the World Top 50. Other event news mirrors the Covid-19 Coronavirus travel news – as five events on the Tour Calendar (in China, Italy, or Korea) have been postponed.
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