The ITTF announced the world rankings for week 17: Ma Long returned to the top three, and Zhang Benmei and the first to enter the top ten
On April 23, Beijing time, the International Table Tennis Federation announced the world ranking list for the 17th week of 2024. Affected by the results of the just-concluded Macao World Cup, the men's singles champions and runners-up Ma Long and Lin Gaoyuan returned to the second and fifth positions, while the women's singles champions and runners-up Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu continued to maintain the top two, and the national table tennis once again swept the top five in the men's and women's singles world rankings.
In terms of foreign associations, Tomokazu Zhangmoto, the only one to reach the semifinals of the World Cup men's singles, remains ninth, while his 15-year-old sister, who advanced to the semifinals of the women's singles event for the first time in the World Series, has reached a new high, ranking among the top 10 in the world for the first time, and is currently in the eighth position.
The World Cup is one of the three traditional major competitions in table tennis, according to the regulations of the International Table Tennis Federation, the winning athlete can get 1500 world ranking points, the runner-up gets 1050 points, the semi-finals are 525 points, and the rest of the rankings also have corresponding rewards: in terms of points, its specifications are second only to the Olympic Games, the World Championships, and the WTT Grand Slam.
Since Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu, who were ranked in the top two in the world in women's singles last period, won the championship and runner-up again this time, their rankings have not changed, but the men's singles champion Ma Long ranked fourth in the last period, and the runner-up Lin Gaoyuan ranked eighth in the last period, so both of them have improved this time, rising to third and fifth positions respectively.
The top 10 players in the latest men's singles world rankings are: Wang Chuqin, Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, Liang Jingkun, Lin Gaoyuan, Felix Lebrun, Lin Yunru, Hugo, Zhang Benzhihe, Qiu Dang - the athletes are still the same as in the previous period, but the progress of Ma Long and Lin Gaoyuan has caused a change in order.
The top 10 athletes in the latest women's singles world rankings are: Sun Yingsha, Wang Manyu, Wang Yidi, Chen Meng, Chen Xingtong, Hina Hayata, Shin Yubin, Zhang Benmeihe, Diaz, Szokos. As mentioned earlier, Miwa Zhang is the first time to enter the world's top 10, and with her joining, Misei Ito, who was ranked 10th in the last period, has no choice but to regress and is now in the 11th position.
Because the World Cup only competed in singles, the world ranking pattern of the three doubles has not changed much, the national table tennis pair Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha won the mixed doubles first, Fan Zhendong/Wang Chuqin continued to top the men's doubles list, and the Korean pair Tian Zhixi/Shin Yubin remained the first in women's doubles.
According to the arrangement, there will be no major international competitions for the next week, and the WTT Saudi Grand Slam competition will start on May 1 - although it is not one of the traditional three major tournaments (Olympics, World Championships, World Cup), but the Grand Slam has more points than the World Cup, so there may be a bigger change in the world rankings after this battle, and wait for the new battle to begin.