Ittf World Ranking August 2011

Men's Ranking

August came with few surprises in the Men's ranking, specially inside the Top 10 players, which only saw Vladimir Samsonov, Wang Liqin and Jun Mizutani exchanging positions between themselves but not leaving the lower half of the 10 best players in the planet.

But the Top 20 list saw the first interesting move: it was Seiya Kishikawa's ascent from world's #28 to #17 due to his unexpected victory over Jun Mizutani in the 2011 Japan Open final last month.

The other interesting jump, and the biggest one from ranked players, was the one by Koki Niwa. The young japanese paddler went from #70 to #31 in just one month also thanks to the Japan Open where Koki reached the semifinals and lost to eventual winner Seiya Kishikawa. Additionally, he also jumped several steps in the Japanese ranking, stablishing himself as the 3rd player of his country only behind the already named Mizutani and Kishikawa.

Other players who went up where Korea's Lee Sang Su, who went from #31 to #22 thanks to reaching the finals of the 2011 Korean Open, and Cho Eon Rae who reached #39 from #55 after reaching Korean Open semis being defeated by eventual winner Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Singapore's Li Hu, thanks to his good presentation in the Japan Open and Portugal's Marcos Freitas who reached semis in the 2011 Morocco Open which was good enough to place him as world's #36 surpassing his teammate Tiago Apolonia as the best Portuguese player.

A separate mention is deserved by two young chinese paddlers that are starting to go up in the world's ranking. They are sixteen years old Lin Gaoyuan, who went from #81 to #54 after reaching Round of 16 in the Japan Open, but specially thanks to his good presentation in the Korean Open, where Lin reached semifinals losing to Lee Sang Su after having defeated the experienced second seeded Oh Sang Eun on his own ground. The other one is Liu Yi, previously unranked but who now enjoys a terrific #73 position after reaching Round of 16 in the Korean Open and quarterfinals in the Japan Open. Surely both of them are players who will be fighting for big things in the mid-term future!

Check the full ITTF Men's Ranking for August 2011 here.

Women's Ranking

Contrary to what could be seen in the Men's Ranking, the Women's side saw 2 important moves in the Top 10.

The first one was Feng Tianwei who reached the #2 spot after her terrific victories in the Korean Open and Japan Open, which allowed her to displace Ding Ning, Guo Yan and Guo Yue on her way to this all-time career height, and once more time proving she's China's most dangerous opponent in the Women's arena.

The second one also came from Singapore. It was Wang Yuegu's jump from #10 to #7 thanks to her semifinals at the Korean Open where Yuegu lost to Feng Tianwei, Japan Open where Yuegu again lost to Feng Tianwei and the Morocco Open where Yuegu lost to Korea's Jeon Ji Hee.

Other interesting movements in the ranking were the ones by Japan's Sayaka Irano, from #13 to #10 thanks to reaching the Morocco Open final, Korea's Moon Hyun Jung, from #48 to #31 thanks to the final reached in the Korean Open, and Jeon Ji Hee from #82 to #33 thanks to her title in the Morocco Open, Japan's Yuri Yamanashi from #99 to #65 thanks to the Round of 16 she reached in the Japan and Korean Opens and the jumps by Top 100 outsiders Taipei's Lee I-Chen from #123 to #66, Korea's Choi Moon Young from #105 to #85 and Japan's Ono Shiho from #107 to #89.

Check the full ITTF Women's Ranking for August 2011 here.

So dear readers, what are your opinions about these changes? Is Feng Tianwei going to reach the #1 spot anytime soon thanks to the terrific performance she's been showing? or will the "young Chinese squad", composed of Lin Gaoyuan and Liu Yi, be an important part of the main Chinese team in a short time? Leave your opinions in the comments!