April World Rankings 2015

This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Review Moderator
Jul 2011
1,035
448
1,823
Read 7 reviews
The ITTF has published the new world rankings! These were released on April 2, 2015. All event results included in this ranking can be found here.


The rise of Mima Ito!


20150322_Table-Tennis_German-Open_Mima-Ito-14-champion_615x400a.jpg

Mima Ito, new World #15 in April 2015 - Photo by: xinhua.net



Mima Ito has had a great month, beating four players above her old ranking. Ranked #38 in March she now occupies a spot in the top 15 of the world, at the age of 15! Other great jumps were made by Doo Hoi Kem (#33 to #14) and Petrissa Solja (#45 to #22).

The past month we have seen 3 big tournaments; the Asian Cup, the German Open and the Spanish Open!


xu_xin_27_10_13_Large.jpg
feng_tianwei1_15_03_15_Large.jpg

Xu Xin and Feng Tianwei - 2015 Asian Cup Champions. Photos by ITTF


The Asian Cup was held in Jaipur, India and is similar to the World Cup: only two players per nation can compete.

We pick up at the men's quarter finals where Tang Peng managed to post a strong 4-2 victory against Koki Niwa. He was the lowest ranked semi finalist among Xu Xin, Fan Zhendong and Jun Mizutani. The two Chinese proved to be unbeatable in this event and both reached the final easily. The final was a big fight as reigning champion Xu Xin fought his way back from 1-3 in order to win 4-3.

An all-Chinese final was impossible in the women's event as Zhu Yuling ended up in the same half of the draw as compatriot Liu Shiwen. Top seed Liu won their match and went on to the final. On the other side Feng Tianwei survived a 7-set thriller against Ai Fukuhara. The final match was a surprise: Feng Tianwei took the cup with a 4-2 victory against Liu Shiwen.


ito1_22_03_15_Large.jpg
ma_long_22_03_15_Large.jpg

Mima Ito and Ma Long - 2015 German Open Champions. Photos by ITTF

The German Open was held in Bremen and many top players, including the Chinese, were there for one of the most anticipated World Tour events of the year.

Two of the male Chinese players were surprisingly already eliminated in the first round. Vladimir Samsonov had a 4-3 victory against Liang Jingkun while at the other side of the hall Fang Bo struggled too much with the defensive skills of Masato Shiono. The higher seeded players had no problems except for Jun Mizutani who lost his quarter final match against Yan An. As Ma Long elminated both Timo Boll and Dimitrij Ovtcharov an all-Chinese final was unavoidable. Zhang Jike brought up just enough power to beat Yan An 4-3, but had to see Ma Long walk away with the title: 3-4.

After winning the Asian Cup earlier this month Feng Tianwei could look forward to another good tournament, especially since #1 seed Kasumi Ishikawa lost her quarter final match against Germany's Petrissa Solja. This would not be the only upset though: Feng lost her next match against 15-year old Mima Ito and Solja eliminated the last Chinese in the tournament, Gu Ruochen. Solja had the better statistics prior to the final with a 2-0 head-to-head on the international stage, but this time was a different match; Mima Ito posted a 4-2 victory.



jeon_jihee_29_03_15_Large.jpg
yoshimura_29_03_15_Large.jpg

Jeon Jihee and Maharu Yoshimura - 2015 Spanish Open Champions. Photos by ITTF

The last event of this month was the Spanish Open, held in Almeria.

Vladimir Samsonov was top seeded in this event where many of the younger Japanese and Korean teams participated. However, even before he could play against the youngsters he faced Alexander Shibaev. They know each other well from the Russian League and this proved to be an advantage for Shibaev as he won 4-2. At the other side, 2nd seeded Koki Niwa did survive Li Ping, but lost his next match against Hongkong's Wong Chun Ting. Wong eliminated 3 Japanese players on his way to the final but the last one was definitely too strong: Maharu Yoshimura took the title after a 4-0 victory.

Last but not least Kasumi Ishikawa and Ai Fukuhara returned to Spain for a new chance. Fukuhara got far, but was defeated by her own teammate Sayaka Hirano in the semi final. Ishikawa had problems earlier, losing her match with Doo Hoi Kem. Still though, the only non-Japanese player in the semi-finals left with the biggest part of the prize money as 13th seed Jeon Jihee of Korea both Yuka Ishigaki and Sayaka Hirano.​






This month's most notable changes
3 (4) ZHANG Jike
7 (x) BOLL Timo
9 (10) SAMSONOV Vladimir
18 (34) WONG Chun Ting
37 (69) KIM Donghyun
38 (56) FILUS Ruwen
43 (61) YOSHIMURA Maharu
53 (80) YOSHIDA Masaki

2 (3) LIU Shiwen
8 (11) FUKUHARA Ai
14 (33) DOO Hoi Kem
15 (38) ITO Mima
22 (45) SOLJA Petrissa
36 (51) HIRANO Miu
74 (99) GRUNDISCH Carole





Top Inactive/Unranked players
(7) WANG Hao
(19) FENG Yalan



Men's World Rankings
1 (1) MA Long
2 (2) XU Xin
3 (4) ZHANG Jike
4 (3) FAN Zhendong
5 (5) MIZUTANI Jun
6 (6) OVTCHAROV Dimitrij
7 (x) BOLL Timo
8 (9) FREITAS Marcos

9 (10) SAMSONOV Vladimir
10 (8) CHUANG Chih-Yuan
11 (11 YAN An
12 (12) NIWA Koki
13 (13) TANG Peng
14 (14) FANG Bo
15 (15) GAO Ning
16 (xx) ZHOU Yu

17 (16) JOO Saehyuk
18 (34) WONG Chun Ting
19 (xx) BAUM Patrick
20 (18) GARDOS Robert
20 (17) APOLONIA Tiago
22 (19) GIONIS Panagiotis
23 (24) MURAMATSU Yuto

24 (20) JUNG Youngsik
25 (27) MATSUDAIRA Kenta
26 (26) STEGER Bastian
27 (22) YU Ziyang
28 (35) MORIZONO Masataka
29 (21) CHEN Chien-An
30 (23) GACINA Andrej
31 (27) MENGEL Steffen
32 (38) YOSHIDA Kaii








Women's World Rankings
1 (1) DING Ning
2 (3) LIU Shiwen
3 (2) LI Xiaoxia
4 (4) FENG Tianwei
5 (5) ISHIKAWA Kasumi
6 (6) ZHU Yuling
7 (7) WU Yang
8 (11) FUKUHARA Ai

9 (8) HAN Ying ^
10 (9) CHEN Meng
11 (10) SEO Hyowon
12 (13) LIU Jia
13 (15) HIRANO Sayaka
14 (33) DOO Hoi Kem
15 (38) ITO Mima
16 (12) YU Mengyu

17 (17) POTA Georgina
18 (14) SAMARA Elizabeta
19 (17) YU Fu ^
20 (26) ISHIGAKI Yuka
21 (19) YANG Haeun
22 (45) SOLJA Petrissa
23 (xx)​ LIU Fei
24 (33) JEON Jihee ^

25 (20) LI Fen ^
26 (22) RI Myong Sun
27 (27) LI Jie
28 (25) HU Melek
29 (24) SHAN Xiaona ^
30 (21) LEE Ho Ching
31 (23) WU Jiaduo
32 (32) MORIZONO Misaki









Full rankings can be found here.
In April: the World Table Tennis Championships!
 
Last edited:
says Visited my own profile, woop woop. ;)
says Visited my own profile, woop woop. ;)
Active Member
Nov 2014
508
267
1,145
Read 6 reviews
29
Mima Ito is ofc the most interesting and noticeable rise this month/year. But! Also Take notice to Wong Chun Ting (him being a penholder, in resemblance to Wang Hao). He has gone from Number 48 to 18 so far this year. I hope he gets among top 10, so I can give a laugh to those whom said Xu Xin will be the "last great penholder".:rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
Top