China's MA Long has reclaimed the men's top position and DING Ning extends her run to 21 weeks as world number one on the International Table Tennis Federation's World Rankings released in July.
MA Long overtook team mate XU Xin, who has occupied the number one spot for the past two month on the back of his ruthless performance at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour China Open in Changchun where he clinched gold.
June is the 24th month that MA Long has occupied the top spot, after first reaching the prestigious position in January 2010.
"I'm pleased to be back at no.1 of course but it doesn't mean that I'm the best player in the team; I know I have to fight for my place", said the 24 year old. "The last time I was at number 1 was in April after I was the runner up in Kuwait and the winner in Qatar; my aim now is to maintain the top place."
Two silver medals over the past two months earned WANG Hao (CHN) the number three position in the rankings to go with his recent marriage. An injury which cut short World Champion ZHANG Jike's (CHN) run at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour China Open meant he moved back down to number four.
Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER) moves up to the number six position, which is the highest of his career, and just one sport behind his team mate and former number one Timo BOLL (GER).
The biggest movers of the month was the Japan Open Men's Singles Champion, Masato SHIONO (JPN), who moved from number 188, to a career high number 85.
2011 World Champion DING Ning (CHN) retains her position at the top of the Women's World Rankings, which she has held for an incredible 21 consecutive months, which dates back to November 2011.
Despite her 21 months of dominance, DING Ning will be looking anxiously over her shoulder as team mate and rival LI Xiaoxiao has closed the gap to just 6 points after winning the World Table Tennis Championships in May and the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour China Open in June. She moved up to second position ahead of the woman she beat in the World Table Tennis Championships final, LIU Shiwen (CHN).
Olympic bronze medalist FENG Tianwei (SIN) stays stagnant in fourth sport.
Turkey's Hu MELEK continues her rise up the World Ranking, as she climbs from 50 to 38 and Germany's Shan XIAONA moves from 77 to 47.
As a service to our readers, Around the Rings will provide verbatim texts of selected press releases issued by Olympic-related organizations, federations, businesses and sponsors.
These press releases appear as sent to Around the Rings and are not edited for spelling, grammar or punctuation.
20 Years at #1:
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
