Table tennis: China’s Sun, Fan Zhendong become first post-2000 ITTF year-end world No. 1s

China’s Sun Yingsha has made history by becoming the first post-2000 player to finish as the year-end world No. 1 in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) world rankings.

Born in 2000, Sun rose to the top of the world rankings on January 30 for the first time. She topped the recently-released year-end world rankings with 8,270 points.

The 22-year-old won titles at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Champions Macao and WTT Cup Finals in October, after helping China claim its fifth consecutive women’s title at the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Chengdu, southwest China’s Sichuan Province.

“Starting the year as world No. 1 will be a new kind of pressure for Sun Yingsha. At just 22, Sun’s career is just getting started,” read a WTT article on its website.

Sun was followed by teammates Chen Meng, Wang Manyu and Wang Yidi. Japanese duo Mima Ito and Hina Hayata ranked fifth and sixth respectively. Other players in the world’s top 10 are Chen Xingtong (China), Kasumi Ishikawa (Japan), Doo Hoi Kem (Hong Kong, China) and Han Ying (Germany), reports Xinhua.

Reigning world champion Fan Zhendong of China led the men’s singles world rankings with 7,700 points in the final edition of 2022.

“The last 12 months have been full of highs for Fan. When the biggest stage called the world No. 1 answered,” said the WTT.

Japan’s Tomokazu Harimoto followed in second. China’s Ma Long and Wang Chuqin were placed third and fourth respectively.

Other top 10 male paddlers include Truls Moregard (Sweden), Liang Jingkun (China), Hugo Calderano (Brazil), Lin Yun-Ju (Chinese Taipei), Dimitrij Ovtcharov (Germany) and Darko Jorgic (Slovenia).

-IANS

“Get more sports news, cricket news, and football updates, log on to sportsdigest.in. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter and Subscribe to our YouTube Channel.”