China's Fan, Sun lead ITTF world rankings, Wang climbs to seventh

BEIJING, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- China's Fan Zhendong and Sun Yingsha maintained their top positions in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) world rankings released on Monday, while World Table Tennis (WTT) Champions winner Wang Chuqin climbed to seventh in the men's singles category.

Fan and compatriot Ma Long remained the men's singles top two, followed by 20-year-old Truls Moregard of Sweden, who sits in a career-best third position after making the semifinals at the WTT Champions in Macao.

Wang, who got past Ma, Moregard and Fan on his way to the WTT Macao tournament title, picked up a career high ranking of seventh by moving up four places on the ladder.

"October has proven that the next generation has arrived and Wang Chuqin could be next face of table tennis," read an article on the WTT website.

Other top 10 male paddlers include Liang Jingkun (China), Tomokazu Harimoto (Japan), Hugo Calderano (Brazil), Lin Yun-Ju (Chinese Taipei), Darko Jorgic (Slovenia) and Qiu Dang (Germany).

On the women's side, Sun, Chen Meng, Wang Manyu and Wang Yidi of China continue to rank in the top four.

Japanese duo Mima Ito and Hina Hayata sit fifth and sixth respectively.

China's Chen Xingtong, who finished runner-up at the WTT Champions on Sunday, climbed six places to seventh, followed by Kasumi Ishikawa (Japan) and Doo Hoi Kem (Hong Kong, China), with Han Ying (Germany) rounding off the women's singles top 10.

France's Yuan Jia Nan, semifinalist at the WTT Champions, moved up eight positions to a career-best 17th.