China to take singles top seeds at 2019 ITTF World Championships

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The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) on Tuesday released the latest world rankings which will decide the seeded players of the 2019 World Table Tennis Championships in Budapest, Hungary, from April 21 to 28.

As the world's top 3 ranking players, China's Fan Zhendong, Xu Xin and Lin Gaoyuan will be the top three seeded players in Budapest, in that order. Ling Jingkun and Ma Long will be No.9 and No.11 seeds. Having won the last two World Championships (2015 and 2017), Ma will strike for the third gold in a row this time. The last Chinese player who did this was Zhuang Zedong in the 1960s.

China's Ma Long will attend the 2019 World Table Tennis Championships in Budapest, Hungary, as the No.11 seeded player in men's singles. /VCG Photo

15-year-old Japanese genius Tomokazu Harimoto will attend the 2019 World Championships as the No.4 seeded player, followed by Germany's Timo Boll, South Korea's Lee Sang-su, Brazil's Hugo Calderano and Harimoto's compatriot Koki Niwa.

As for women's singles, Chinese players will occupy the top 4 seeds since they have already taken the ITTF's top 5 world rankings. Since Zhu Yuling will not go to Budapest, Ding Ning, Chen Meng, Wang Manyu and Liu Shiwen will be individually the No.1, No.2, No.3 and No.4 seeded players of the event.

Like Ma Long of men's singles, Ding is also aiming for her third consecutive title but she also wants her fourth gold at the World Championships. In almost 60 years, only three players have ever won three women's singles titles at the event and they are Deng Yaping, Wang Nan and Ding, all from China. If Ding can win it again, she will have the most World Championships women's singles titles under her name in almost 60 years.

China's Liu Shiwen will attend the 2019 World Table Tennis Championships in Budapest, Hungary, as the No.4 seeded player in women's singles. /VCG Photo

Budapest will become a major challenge for Liu Shiwen, too, only for different reasons. It will be Liu's sixth World Championships after she lost the five previous ones, all to her compatriots, either in semi-finals or in the finals.

No.5 to No.8 seeded players are respectively Kasumi Ishikawa (Japanese), Mima Ito (Japanese), Cheng I-ching (Chinese Taipei) and Miu Hirano.

Japan will have No.1 seeded combinations in both men's doubles (Masataka Morizono/ Yuya Oshima) and women's doubles (Hina Hayata/ Mima Ito). Wong Chun Ting/Doo Hoi Kem from Chinese Hong Kong will be the top seeds of mixed doubles.

Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto will attend the 2019 World Table Tennis Championships in Budapest, Hungary, as the No.4 seeded player in men's singles. /VCG Photo

Meanwhile, as the warm-up contest of the World Championships in Asia, the 2019 ITTF-ATTU Asian Cup is taking place in Yokohama, Japan, between April 5 and 7. China sent Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, and Chen Meng along with Zhu Yuling to the event.

According to the group division results announced on Thursday, Fan is in Group A while Ma is in Group B with Harimoto. As for women, Cheng is in Group B to take on Cheng I-ching while Zhu is in Group A with Hirano.

(Top image: China's Ding Ning (L) and Fan Zhendong will attend the 2019 World Table Tennis Championships in Budapest, Hungary, as the No.1 seeded players in respectively women's and men's singles. /VCG Photo)