Major gains from #RESTART competitors

The top plaudits in the Men’s World Rankings list of gainers are reserved for Ahmed Saleh, the African star moving up a whopping 28 positions (no.78 to no.50)! Falling short in his pursuit of reaching the round of 16 at the Men’s World Cup, but Saleh ends the year on a positive note with news of the ranking boost.

Rising eight places, Brazil’s Gustavo Tsuboi is the second best performer in December’s tally (no.44 to no.36) while Korea Republic’s Jang Woojin rounds off the top three with his gain of seven (no.18 to no.11) following his magnificent outings at the Men’s World Cup and ITTF Finals.

Ukraine’s Margaryta Pesotska is the player to enjoy the best performance in the top 200 of the Women’s World Rankings (no.38 to no.32) after claiming victories over higher ranked opposition in United States’ Lily Zhang and Canada’s Zhang Mo at the Women’s World Cup. Meanwhile, Germany’s Han Ying rises four places (no.25 to no.21) with her top four finish in Weihai.

New heights

Not only do Darko Jorgic and Ahmed Saleh’s names appear amongst the list on improvements in December’s list, but the Slovenian and Egyptian players have also achieved new personal best ranking positions. Jorgic improves upon his highest by two positions (no.31) while Saleh topples his own record set only in March this year when he occupied 71st position.

There are four competitors who have also achieved new heights on a personal level: China’s Wang Yidi (no.10), Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz (no.18), the Netherlands’ Britt Eerland (no.27) and Ukraine’s Margaryta Pesotska (no.32).

Downward movement

Japan’s Koki Niwa has lost ground in the Men’s World Rankings, dropping four positions (no.13 to no.17) following opening round defeats at the Men’s World Cup and ITTF Finals. Dimitrij Ovtcharov also moves down a spot (no.11 to no.12) despite a quarter-final finish at the World Cup for the German.

Looking at the bigger picture, India’s Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (no.32 to no.37), Sweden’s Kristian Karlsson (no.24 to no.29) and Austria’s Daniel Habesohn (no.36 to no.44) suffered the largest drops in the top 50, with Australia’s Heming Hu (no.98 to no.129) losing the most ground in the top 200.

Singapore’s Feng Tianwei (no.9 to no.12), now sits outside the top 10 of the Women’s World Rankings for the first time since October 2019 having succumbed to early exits in her #RESTART efforts. One of the players responsible for Feng’s shortcomings in November, Lily Zhang also falls (no.27 to no.30), while Egypt’s Dina Meshref (no.32 to no.35), Austria’s Sofia Polcanova (no.14 to no.16), Romania’s Bernadette Szocs (no.24 to no.26) and Canada’s Zhang Mo (no.34 to no.38) experience the same fate.

In terms of players absent from last month’s international action, World champion Liu Shiwen moves out of the top five (no.4 to no.7) for the first time in two years. Further down the list Poland’s Natalia Partyka suffers the biggest drop in the top 100 (no.70 to no.79), and Australia’s Jian Fang Lay in the top 200 (no.106 to no.155).

Click here to see the rankings in full.