Swedish Open 2011

Carl Horowitz said:

I am going to have to look it up. It was either somewhere between 2000-2002 when he went 25 consecutive weeks ranked as #1 (2nd longest ever) or between the 2005 and 2007 World Championships that he won.

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How can he be on #1 for only 25 weeks if he won everything? :O Did he just not play enough or something? :S

Yup, he was indeed no1 from sept 2000 to sept 2002. That's 2 years...25 consecutive months! hehehe. At the 2000 Sydney Games, Wang Liqin and his partner Yan Sen defeated their teammates Kong Linghui and Liu Guoliang to win the men's doubles gold...THE MAN!!

azlan said:

Yup, he was indeed no1 from sept 2000 to sept 2002. That's 2 years...25 consecutive months! hehehe. At the 2000 Sydney Games, Wang Liqin and his partner Yan Sen defeated their teammates Kong Linghui and Liu Guoliang to win the men's doubles gold...THE MAN!!

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Ah months of course, not weeks haha. I get it now xD

Yeah, WLQ was number 1 for 25 weeks consecutive. But Carl I think exaggerated a little when he said he went a year without losing a match. The world cup happens every year, and amazingly WLQ still hasn't won a title there. So he would have at least had to have lost a match once in a year. But either way, WLQ's accomplishments are out of this world

Wang has been ranked #1 for two periods close to a year long each. Much longer than 25 weeks. I think the first was just over a year and the second was just under. Between the two periods is when Ma Lin was reigning #1. Timo also may have been somewhere in there I'm not too sure.

WLQ was ranked #1 I don't believe he won every match though. I'm fairly sure that Ma or Chen Qi gave him some trouble during that period. But I would have to agree that WLQ has to have the record for longest period without losing a match.

I'd like to see Ma Long take the torch this time by not losing a single set. So far he's doing pretty well.

azlan said:

Yup, he was indeed no1 from sept 2000 to sept 2002. That's 2 years...25 consecutive months! hehehe. At the 2000 Sydney Games, Wang Liqin and his partner Yan Sen defeated their teammates Kong Linghui and Liu Guoliang to win the men's doubles gold...THE MAN!!

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This is right. I said 25 weeks and it was a typo. He was ranked #1 for 25 consecutive months. Only one player has been ranked #1 for a longer consecutive stretch.

When he did not lose a match for a whole year, I found out, was between fall of 2000 and fall of 2001. I was told the match that ended the streak was in the World Cup against Samsonov. I was also told that that was the first tournament where they used the 11 point game.

By the way, there were many other months where he was ranked #1 but there was a stretch of 25 consecutive months where he was ranked #1.

You have to give it to him, Wang Liqin was really pretty damn amazing.

On the iTTF website they have Wang Liqin listed as being ranked #1 for 52 total months but their records only go back to January 2001 and that is right in the middle of that first streak of 25 consecutive months ranked #1.

Between January 2005 and February 2007 he is ranked #1 as well and that adds up to another 24 consecutive months as #1.

If you go from June of 2004 through February of 2007 there is only one month where he is not ranked #1 and that is December 2004. If he had been ranked #1 in December of 2004 that would have been 31 consecutive months in the #1 slot.

But when he went a year without losing a match was from the fall of 2000 to the fall of 2001. I heard someone say he went a year without dropping a set, but I don't believe that is possible even though he was really that dominant.

He didn't win everything during that period. The guy's a human after all...nevertheless, a legend.

By the way if you want to see the World Ranking history for Wang Liqin just go here:

http://www.ittf.com/_front_page/ittf1.asp?category=wr

They won't give a link to his direct ranking so you have to select men world ranking and then click on Wang Liqin's name to see his World Ranking history.

In the 10 years that they have listed, his lowest ranking is 9th and that is recent.

In the period from November 2002 through October 2003 he struggled a little and his ranking at one point goes down to #6.

But in the period from September 2000 through September 2002 and in the period from June 2004 through February 2007 he showed almost total domination.

In looking closely at that ranking page these months are missing so I just do not know what Wang Liqin's rank was for these months:

March 2005 (missing) and January 2006. So one of those months he must have been ranked something other than #1 or he would have had 26 consecutive months of being ranked #1. But he did not.

So what I said was 24 consecutive months of being ranked #1 is inaccurate. But we ITTF does not say what his ranking was for March 2005 or January 2006.

Hehe, funny reading this all, but I say - its all off topic

Soo, who has the record of being ranked as world number 1 for the longest time? J-O Waldner?

Anders said:

Soo, who has the record of being ranked as world number 1 for the longest time? J-O Waldner?

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That I don't know. Hopefully someone does. I don't think it was Waldner though. But I really don't know who had a longer streak than 25 consecutive months.

Carl Horowitz said:

That I don't know. Hopefully someone does. I don't think it was Waldner though. But I really don't know who had a longer streak than 25 consecutive months.

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I believe for women Zhang Yining had it for some consecutive years lol, for men's I don't know.

I think the longest no1 is held by a Hungarian named VICTOR BARNA. He held it in 1931, 1932, and 1933/34. The ranking record disappeared and emerged again in 1938, and Victor was ranked no2 then. He might had held longer.he was the world champion in the year 1930, 1932,33,34,35. And that's only in singles! 8-time World Doubles Ch: 1929-1935,1939. Mixed Doubles World Ch: 1932,35. And over 40 championship around the world (pro tours equivalent). He also published a book named "How To Win At Table Tennis" in 1957. I had a copy, but a friend borrowed it, and he lent it to another, and the another lent it to another, and so forth...and now it's history.

Michael_Z, I know it's off topic, but it's good to know a little history of our beloved game.


THE MAN!!!



PICTURES OF VICTOR ON A CIGARETTE CARD..and he was not even a smoker!! hahaha