It's Official | Dimitrij Ovtcharov is the New World Number 1!

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NEWS FLASH!

It's official, Dimitrij Ovtcharov is the New World Number 1! What a great way to start the new year for Germanys new world number 1! Last month's round of 16 victory against Koki Niwa at the World Tour Grand Finals secured Ovtcharov’s new status as the best player in the world.

This however was not official until today when the ITTF confirmed it via the release of the January 2018 ranking list!

dimitrijovtcharov2018worldranked1.jpg


2017 was the year of Dimitrij Ovtcharov! His first big win was at the China Open where he defeated German compatriot Timo Boll in the final. Dimitrij then followed this up by defeating Timo Boll again in the World Cup final, claiming his first major championship title.

A few weeks later Dimitrij shocked the table tennis world defeating China’s Fan Zhendong in the semi final of the German Open. In the final Ovtcharov took out once again Timo Boll!

These tournament victories have put Dimitrij on top of the world, as the new world ranking system ranks players on how far they reach in events. It has caused a lot of notable changes, Olympic/World Champion and former world number 1 Ma Long now incredibly moves to world number 7! In the Women's event, Ding Ning was ranked number 3 last month, this month the World Champion sits at number 21! Here's the top 30 list below:


MENS WORLD RANKING

01 (03) Dimitrij Ovtcharov
02 (02) Fan Zhendong
03 (05) Timo Boll
04 (06) Lin Gaoyuan
05 (04) Xu Xin
06 (08) Koki Niwa
07 (01) Ma Long
07 (14) Wong Chun Ting
09 (11) Simon Gauzy
10 (15) Kenta Matsudaira
11 (17) Tomokazu Harimoto
12 (19) Marcos Freitas
13 (07) Jun Mizutani
14 (10) Lee Sang Su
15 (13) Chuang Chih Yuan
16 (26) Omar Assar
17 (31) Hygo Calderano
18 (23) Ruwen Filus
19 (25) Yuya Oshima
20 (21) Quadri Aruna
21 (12) Fang Bo
22 (27) Kristian Karlsson
23 (27) Maharu Yoshimura
24 (22) Masaki Yoshida
25 (18) Vladimir Samsonov
26 (33) Emmanuel Lebesson
27 (47) Ricardo Walther
28 (34) Jin Ueda
29 (40) Chen Chien-An
30 (23) Jeong Sangeun


WOMENS WORLD RANKING

01 (02) Chen Meng
02 (01) Zhu Yuling
03 (11) Feng Tianwei
04 (05) Kasumir Ishikawa
05 (09) Mima Ito
06 (06) Miu Hirano
07 (12) Cheng I-Ching
08 (08) Wang Manyu
09 (19) Doo Hoi Kem
10 (10) Chen Xingtong
11 (14) Hina Hayata
12 (25) Lee Ho Ching
13 (18) Miyu Kato
14 (23) Li Jie
15 (17) Yuting Gu
16 (26) Chen Szu-Yu
17 (32) Sakura Mori
18 (22) Hyowon Suh
19 (14) Hitomi Sato
20 (35) Georgina Pota
21 (03) Ding Ning
22 (37) Sofia Polcanova
23 (27) Xiaona Shan
24 (04) Liu Shiwen
25 (45) Matilda Ekholm
26 (30) Elizabeta Samara
27 (44) Yang Haeun
28 (21) Honoka Hashimoto
29 (34) Jian Zeng
30 (52) Soo wai Yam Minnie

A huge congratulations to Dimitrij Ovtcharov stating 2018 as the New World Number 1 table tennis player! This will sure send shock waves across the table tennis world as the last European player to be number 1 in the world was Timo Boll back in 2011.

What do you think of this new ranking system? Leave your comments below.
 
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Happy New Year! And welcome (?) to the world with new WR system.
Check out what Dima said about his becoming WR#1 and why he dropped Hungarian Open lol
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Here it is, Dima's statement from rains post:

"Thanks a lot to everyone and also generally for all the wishes and congratulations. I cannot answer to each one individually but I have quoted some of them and my answers also count for all the others.

I was very tense/nervous going into the Grand Finals and with Koki Niwa I had to play a very unconventional opponent. His unpredictable style is hard for me to deal with, as well as for many other players.

The fact that I lost Sets 1 and 3 after having gamepoints didn't make things easier for me. Luckily, I managed to stay calm and focus on each point individually.

Many people talk to me about my mental strength and that other players are more talented, by means of they have a better feeling for the ball. This is totally correct. In my opinion however, mental strength, (practice-)persistence and a strong body that is not injury-prone are talents just as the feeling for the ball. Waldner and Ma Long are maybe the only players that combine/-d all of those attributes.

The mental aspect of the game, especially in TT where you have to perform fine motor strokes is immense. The difference between becoming the olympic champion and getting eliminated in the quarter finals, or being the number 1 or number 6 in the world is extremely fine and can be decided by just one point.

With good self-confidence players were able to play 15-5 stats in the German bundesliga and becoming number 20 in the WR - without self-confidence they play 3-17 stats and are rank 100 with the same amount of practice.

Since I play TT, thus since 20 years, my father (who is my coach from the first day up unitl now) tried to keep the mental intensity of my practice sessions as high as possible, which is why I felt less mental pressure during competitions. He always told me that if give each practice session 100% of what you got, physically and mentalle, you don't need to have any regrets if you lose in a competition. I think this is the reason why I play well in close situations.

The fact that I am WR #1 from january on feels unreal. But I am incredibly proud and happy.

It has been an incredible year for me with 44-4 stats in international tournaments.

Of course, many people think that Ma Long deserves this position [#1 WR] a lot more than I do, because he is better. No doubt, Ma Long is the best player in the World and I am in no position to compare myself to him. However, he did not play a lot this year and FZD and XX performed worse than me on 8 tournaments this year. I also think that Murray and Djokovic are a lot better than their current WR rank as well. However, the systems are what they are, and I am simply happy to have played such an incredible year 2017 and to be WR #1 in January. I think it will be good for the sport of TT.

Greetings from St. Petersburg, Dima"



Second screenshot:

Guy asks:
"Why have you decided not to play the Hungarian Open in january 2018?
Is it because of the new WR-system?"
The rest is just some speculation/calculation that is really irrelevant in this context.

Dima responds:
"If i had not made WR #1, I would've played the Hungarian Open.

However, I have enough points, to remain WR #1 for to months now.

I will be on vacation untill january 7th and start an intense training period after that to be able to perform well at WTC, German and Qatar Open.

I will be answering more in the following days. Dima"
 
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Here are some interesting stats of WR top 10's singles performance in 2017 from ITTF website. I suppose the total matches include all the matches that give them ranking points (the final ranking takes the best 8 results)
http://results.ittf.link/index.php?option=com_fabrik&view=list&listid=84&Itemid=228

Player (ITTF ID) 2017 Singles Wins/Total matches (Wins %)
OVTCHAROV Dimitrij (107028) 36/39(92%)
FAN Zhendong (121404) 29/35(83%)
BOLL Timo (101222) 30/35(86%)
LIN Gaoyuan (115910) 32/39(82%)
XU Xin (110267) 18/22(82%)
NIWA Koki (110729) 23/38(61%)
MA Long (105649) 19/21(90%)
WONG Chun Ting (112620) 11/21(52%)
GAUZY Simon (112062) 22/34(65%)
MATSUDAIRA Kenta (105926) 16/27(59%)

Only Dima and ML won over 90% of the matches. WCT played the exact same number of matches as ML did, 11 wins out 21 vs 19 wins out of 21. WCT played more tournaments than ML and got worse results than ML on average while they have the exact same ranking points now.
 
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Here are some interesting stats of WR top 10's singles performance in 2017 from ITTF website. I suppose the total matches include all the matches that give them ranking points (the final ranking takes the best 8 results)
http://results.ittf.link/index.php?option=com_fabrik&view=list&listid=84&Itemid=228

Player (ITTF ID) 2017 Singles Wins/Total matches (Wins %)
OVTCHAROV Dimitrij (107028) 36/39(92%)
FAN Zhendong (121404) 29/35(83%)
BOLL Timo (101222) 30/35(86%)
LIN Gaoyuan (115910) 32/39(82%)
XU Xin (110267) 18/22(82%)
NIWA Koki (110729) 23/38(61%)
MA Long (105649) 19/21(90%)
WONG Chun Ting (112620) 11/21(52%)
GAUZY Simon (112062) 22/34(65%)
MATSUDAIRA Kenta (105926) 16/27(59%)

Only Dima and ML won over 90% of the matches. WCT played the exact same number of matches as ML did, 11 wins out 21 vs 19 wins out of 21. WCT played more tournaments than ML and got worse results than ML on average while they have the exact same ranking points now.

Can you give the stats for WTC and ML for the last 6 months? What do they look like?
 
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Can you give the stats for WTC and ML for the last 6 months? What do they look like?

Here are all the results of WCT, ML and XX (he played 22 matches in the whole year of 2017, just one more match than WCT and ML, so I added him in comparison). The ranking points with * are NOT included in the best 8 results for WR. Events after China Open were held in the last 6 months: WCT played 4 events, R32 (excluded)/QF/R32(excluded)/QF; ML played 1 event, 3rd place; XX played 3 events, QF/winner/QF. But as the new ranking takes 8 best results of last 12 months (WTTC and WTTTC for 2 years), I don't think it makes much sense to look at the performance of the last 6 months.
WCT
EventsRanking PointsResults
2016 WTTC Team2000Team
2017 Qatar Open1350Rnd of 16
2017 ATTC1080Rnd of 16
2017 ATTC Team320*Team
2017 WTTC2100QF
2017 Japan Open1350Rnd of 16
2017 China Open1800SF
2017 Austrian Open563*Rnd of 32 (Seeded lost 1st match)
2017 German Open1575QF
2017 Swedish Open450*Rnd of 32 (Seeded lost 1st match)
2017 Grand Finals1785QF
ML
EventsRanking PointsResults
2016 WTTC Team1250Team
2017 Qatar Open2250Winner
2017 ATTC900Rnd of 32
2017 ATTC Team540*Team
2017 WTTC3000Winner
2017 Japan Open2250Winner
2017 China Open1350Rnd of 16
2017 World Cup20403rd Place
XX
EventsRanking PointsResults
2016 WTTC Team1750Team
2017 Qatar Open1350Rnd of 16
2017 ATTC1260*QF
2017 ATTC Team360*Team
2017 WTTC2400SF
2017 Japan Open1800SF
2017 China Open1350Rnd of 16
2017 German Open1575QF
2017 Swedish Open1800Winner
2017 Grand Finals1785QF
 
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Here are all the results of WCT, ML and XX (he played 22 matches in the whole year of 2017, just one more match than WCT and ML, so I added him in comparison). The ranking points with * are NOT included in the best 8 results for WR. Events after China Open were held in the last 6 months: WCT played 4 events, R32 (excluded)/QF/R32(excluded)/QF; ML played 1 event, 3rd place; XX played 3 events, QF/winner/QF. But as the new ranking takes 8 best results of last 12 months (WTTC and WTTTC for 2 years), I don't think it makes much sense to look at the performance of the last 6 months.
WCT
EventsRanking PointsResults
2017 China Open1800SF
2017 Austrian Open563*Rnd of 32 (Seeded lost 1st match)
2017 German Open1575QF
2017 Swedish Open450*Rnd of 32 (Seeded lost 1st match)
2017 Grand Finals1785QF
ML
EventsRanking PointsResults
2017 China Open1350Rnd of 16
2017 World Cup20403rd Place

Since you did not actually give results for the last 6 months for ML and WTC, here, I will cut them:

In your list, the results for ML since June are:

1) his withdrawal from China Open in the round of 16
2) 3rd place at the World Cup

END OF STORY. Two events in your list in the last 6 months.

WTC in the last 6 months has more results; he is in 5 tournaments rather than 2 and in the only tournament they were both in, WTC finished higher than ML. It was because ML withdrew. But WTC still finished higher in that tournament.

You were doing what is called cherry picking facts to make it look like the stats are on your side; in other words, you are trying to manipulate the facts. But in the last 6 months, ML has almost no results to look at.
 
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I think it's going to take at least 3-4 months before we start seeing if this system has any potential to accurately represent who should be in what places. Right now the system is flooded with world ranked players. Once the inactive players come out of the system it will narrow down and become more precise.

Also those players who ended up ranked lower are likely to attend a few more world tour events to try and improve their position. All in all I have a lot of opinions about the new system which I won't get into but I'm going to refrain from laying judgement until it has had a chance to settle in.

*EDIT* Apparently players will stay in the system for 12 months, so it could take a little longer to re-adjust.
 
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Carl, you asked the results of last 6 months and I listed "WCT played 4 events, R32 (excluded)/QF/R32(excluded)/QF; ML played 1 event, 3rd place; XX played 3 events, QF/winner/QF. " China Open 2017 was in late June, and I said events AFTER China Open were counted in the results of 6 months (the first one Australian Open July 4-7).
Could you please read before you wrote post??? And how did I cherry picking when I listed all the facts? Do you know what is cherry picking?

Since you did not actually give results for the last 6 months for ML and WTC, here, I will cut them:

In your list, the results for ML since June are:

1) his withdrawal from China Open in the round of 16
2) 3rd place at the World Cup

END OF STORY. Two events in your list in the last 6 months.

WTC in the last 6 months has more results; he is in 5 tournaments rather than 2 and in the only tournament they were both in, WTC finished higher than ML. It was because ML withdrew. But WTC still finished higher in that tournament.

You were doing what is called cherry picking facts to make it look like the stats are on your side; in other words, you are trying to manipulate the facts. But in the last 6 months, ML has almost no results to look at.
 
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Carl, you asked the results of last 6 months and I listed "WCT played 4 events, R32 (excluded)/QF/R32(excluded)/QF; ML played 1 event, 3rd place; XX played 3 events, QF/winner/QF. " China Open 2017 was in late June, and I said events AFTER China Open were counted in the results of 6 months (the first one Australian Open July 4-7).
Could you please read before you wrote post??? And how did I cherry picking when I listed all the facts? Do you know what is cherry picking?

Yep. I know what cherry picking is. And you like to do it. That is why you added XX into the list and why you listed lots more than the last 6 months.
 
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I listed all results from ITTF website of Jan 2018 ranking because that's how the new ranking works. Do you really understand the rule of new ranking?
I don't quite get your logic. You asked the results of last 6 months (do you know last 6 months means July 2017-Dec 2017?) and I listed what you asked and said it did not make much sense to look at the results of last 6 months because the new ranking takes the results of last 12 months. Then you said I cherry picked and you did by yourself by adding China Open (June 2017) to the results of last 6 months...

Yep. I know what cherry picking is. And you like to do it. That is why you added XX into the list and why you listed lots more than the last 6 months.
 
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I listed all results from ITTF website of Jan 2018 ranking because that's how the new ranking works. Do you really understand the rule of new ranking?
I don't quite get your logic. You asked the results of last 6 months (do you know last 6 months means July 2017-Dec 2017?) and I listed what you asked and said it did not make much sense to look at the results of last 6 months because the new ranking takes the results of last 12 months. Then you said I cherry picked and you did by yourself by adding China Open (June 2017) to the results of last 6 months...

Yep. I added China Open and gave ML 2 results instead of 1. My logic behind the last 6 months, having nothing to do with the ranking system, was to show that ML did not play very much in the second half of the year. Even if you add the results in June, he has very close to nothing.

And as far as I am concerned, there is no reason to worry about the new world ranking system for quite a while.

But it is true, in hiding the last 6 months of ML's results behind a chart with ML, XX and WCT, you were obscuring facts rather than cherry picking results. Still, you like to do both. :)
 
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