Chinese table tennis players Sun Yingsha (L) and Fan Zhendong. /CFP
Chinese paddlers Fan Zhendong and Sun Yingsha maintained their leading positions in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) latest world rankings released on Tuesday.
Despite being deducted 1,400 points for not competing at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Champions, Fan has a solid advantage in the men's singles with 5,500 ranking points, followed by his compatriots Ma Long (3,700) and Liang Jingkun (3,085).
Fan skipped the WTT events to focus on the preparation for the World Championships in southwest China's Chengdu from September 30 to October 9.
Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto climbed to world No. 4 following an epic comeback victory in the WTT Champions final, where he beat China's Lin Gaoyuan. He is now close to his previous career-best ranking of No. 3, with a gap of 65 points separating Liang and him. Meanwhile, Lin managed to climb eight places to No. 12.
Patrick Franziska of Germany hit a career-high No. 11 after making it to the WTT Champions final four.
Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto celebrates as he competes against China's Lin Gaoyuan during the men's singles final of the World Table Tennis Champions European Summer Series in Budapest, Hungary, July 23, 2022. /CFP
In the women's rankings, Sun led Chinese paddlers to take up the women's singles' top four positions, followed by Chen Meng, Wang Manyu and Wang Yidi.
Their arch-rivals Japanese Mima Ito and Hina Hayata rank fifth and sixth respectively.
Another Japanese Miyuu Kihara, who reached the quarterfinals at the WTT Champions, moved up two places to a career-high No. 13.
The doubles events are more competitive, as Japan's Shunsuke Togami/Yukiya Uda lead the men's doubles, Swedish duo Kristian Karlsson/Mattias Falck rank second, and China's Fan Zhendong/Wang Chuqin are third. Another Chinese pair Lin Gaoyuan/Liang Jingkun are seventh.
Chinese golden pair Wang Manyu/Sun Yingsha are on the top of women's doubles, ahead of Japanese Mima Ito/Hina Hayata and Ni Xialian/Sarah De Nutte of Luxembourg.
Meanwhile, Cheng I-Ching/Lin Yun-Ju from Chinese Taipei are the mixed doubles world No.1, followed by Chinese Sun Yingsha/Wang Chuqin. The pair of Liu Shiwen/Xu Xin, widely popular among Chinese table tennis lovers, rank eighth in the world.
(With input from Xinhua)