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The new ITTF World Rankings list is out and the winners of the respective Men’s and Women’s Singles titles at the H.I.S. World Championships in Yokohama in May 2009 do not featured in their exalted positions.

Zhang Yining (China), the reigning Olympic and World Champion, is no longer the World’s no.1 ranked female player. On the listings issued by the International Table Tennis Federation on Sunday 3rd January 2010, she falls to the no.2 spot and is replaced by 18 year old national team colleague Liu Shiwen. Zhang Yining assumed the no.1 spot in January 2003 and has only relinquished that position on two occasions, prior to being replaced by Liu Shiwen. In January and November 2008 she fell one place to no.2 but immediately bounced back the following month.

For Liu Shiwen, it is the first time she has occupied the no.1 spot on the Women’s World Ranking list. She entered the World Rankings in August 2004 at no.95; in July 2007 she gained a top 50 place at no.41 and clinched a top ten place less than a year ago. In May 2009, she achieved a ranking of no.7. The other notable Chinese women players also have some changes, Guo Yue drops one place to no.3, Li Xiaoxia falls to no.5, Guo Yan, winner of the Women’s Singles title at the Tournament of Champions, advances from no.5 to no.4. So the top 5 women players in the World Ranking all came from China.

For No. 6 position, there were ne change. Feng Tianwei occupies the no.6 slot followed by the Chinese duo of Ding Ning and Wang Nan, Kim Kyung Ah (Korea) and Fan Ying (China).

The player in the top 50 to make the most progress is Germany’s Wu Jiaduo, the player to suffer is Singapore’s Li Jia Wei. Wu Jiaduo, who beat Kim Kyung Ah at the Tournament of Champions in Changsha in December 2009, before losing to Guo Yan, moves from no.20 to no.15; whilst Li Jia Wei, now retired from the international scene, drops from no.15 to no.23.

Top place for Liu Shiwen in the Women’s World Rankings and the same place in the Under 21 Women’s Rankings but being born in 1991, she now moves out of the Under 18 age group category.
In the Under 21 Women’s Rankings Liu Shiwen replaces Guo Yue in the no.1 positions, the latter now drops to no.2 with Ding Ning climbing from no.4 to no.3.
Li Xiaoxia, born in 1988 and previously at no.3, departs the Under 21 Women’s Rankings as do Japan’s Ai Fukuhara(previously at No.5) and Yao Yan (previously at No.6), also from China.

Excerpts from ITTF news : http://www.ittf.com/_front_page/ittf_fu ... ition_ID=&

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For the Men World Ranking, China’s 21 year old Ma Long is the new no.1 ranked player. He was previously listed at no.2 in December 2009, he changes places with compatriot Wang Hao.
It is the first time in his career that Ma Long, winner at the Tournament of Champions in December 2009, has assumed the top place.

Ma Long first entered the World Rankings in October 2003 at no.300 and first entered the top 100 in October 2005 at no.51. In March 2007 he secured a top 10 place at no.8 then two years later in March 2009 he secured the no.2 spot, one month later he dropped one place to no.3 but in May he was back in second berth, a place he maintained for the rest of the year.

As for Wang Hao, he first clinched the no.1 spot in December 2004 but only held on to the precious place for one month; in January 2005 he fell to no.3. He returned to the top position in October 2007 and occupied that place until being dethroned by Ma Long.

Ma Lin (China) remains at no.3 on the newly published Men’s World Rankings followed by Timo Boll (Germany), Wang Liqin (China), Vladimir Samsonov (Belarus) and Hao Shuai (China). Michael Maze (Denmark) changes places with Chen Qi (China) and is now at no.8 with the Chinese star one place lower whilst Jun Mizutani (Japan) completes the top 10.

Mizutani moves from no.12 to no.10 with Joo Se Hyuk falling one place to no.11. It is for Jun Mizutani, the highest World Ranking of his career, his previous best being no.11 in September and November 2009. Similarly, it is somewhat of a milestone for Michael Maze; he recaptures his best ever World Ranking having stood at no.8 in October and November 2009.

In the age group lists it is all change with the new ages coming into effect.
The Under 21 rankings demand the year of birth to be 1989 or later, Ma Long, formerly at no.1, is now too old being born in 1988 and is replaced in the top spot by Jun Mizutani.
Xu Xin is at no.2 followed by Kenta Matsudaira (Japan). Zhang Jike (China), Dimitrij Ovtcharov (Germany) and Jiang Tianyi, all born in 1988 and highly ranked in 2009, leave the age group.

Similarly in the Under 18 Rankings, the New Year produces some changes.
Kenta Matsudaira (Japan), Jin Yixiong (China) and Seo Hyun Deok (Korea), who occupied the top three places in the Under 18 Boys’ Rankings in December 2009, being born in 1991 now leave the age group. They are replaced respectively by Yan (China), Kim Min Seok (Korea) and Fang Bo (China); all players who competed in the Volkswagen World Junior Championships in December 2009.

(Source : ITTF News)

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Was wondering why the latest ITTF ranking for the month of February was not updated yet.

Well, apparently, ITTF have changed the rating system again, (I think like the old way). Here's a link to ITTF's explanation on the changes :
http://www.ittf.com/_front_page/ittf_fu ... ategory=wr

http://www.ittf.com/_front_page/ittf_fu ... ition_ID=&

Apparently, ITTF says they want to compress the ratings to reduce the gaps between rated players. In short to be more transparent to the players on how the ratings are calculated. Prevoiusly, it was a total mystery, so with the new ratings system, after you play someone, you have a better chance of guessing exactly where you'll be without having to wait a month or so to find out.

IMO ITTF is also trying to boost players for simply showing up to events. If you look at the chart that determines how many bonus points you get, for not even doing anything significant like winning. I feel that rankings should be purely based on a win-loss scenario, with only bonus points for winners of major events (Olympics, Worlds, World Cups). In TT and chess you get points based on who you defeat - so if you are at 2600 that means it is your strength, not the points you manged to collect at the tourneys. And I think that number should stay with you for some time till other players trying to get more points to bypass your rating by beating you or other higher ranked players.