Rio 2016 Olympic Games Champion DING Ning (CHN) has made her return to the top spot of the newly released ITTF October World Rankings to become the world number one for a 36th month.
The newly crowned Grand Slam Champion had to overcome then world number one LIU Shiwen (CHN) at the recently concluded 2016 ITTF World Tour SheSays China Open final to overtake her compatriot for the number one crown.
DING shared “Very happy to be back to the number one place! Thank you to all my fans for their support and encouragements, I will continue to strive for more!”
China’s LI Xiaoxia retains the number three spot on the list, followed by her teammate ZHU Yuling.
Kasumi ISHIKAWA who led the Japanese women’s team to an Olympic Team Bronze in Rio over Singapore, overtook 2010 World Team Champion FENG Tianwei (SIN) to settle for the fifth place.
Reigning Olympic and World Champion MA Long (CHN) continued to stand on the summit of international table tennis for a 49th month, and has not been overtaken since he regained the spot from teammate XU Xin in March 2015.
19-year-old FAN Zhendong, who will be fighting for his first major World title at the Liehberr 2016 ITTF Men’s World Cup from 1-3 October in Germany, trails closely behind MA at the number two place.
XU and London 2012 Olympic Champion ZHANG Jike retained the third and fourth place respectively for China.
Next in line is Rio 2016 Singles Bronze and Team Silver medalist Jun MIZUTANI (JPN) who changed places with Europe’s number one Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER).
Hong Kong’s WONG Chun Ting achieved the highest ranking of his career at number seven, after his sensational victory over XU at the China Open.
The players will be competing for more world ranking points at the 2016 ITTF Men’s & Women’s World Cups in October:
Liebherr 2016 ITTF Men’s World Cup – 1-3 October, Saarbrucken (GER)
Seamaster 2016 ITTF Women’s World Cup – 7-9 October, Philadelphia (USA)
