Timo Boll will return to ITTF World Ranking #1 at age 37

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You may know that Roger Federer returned to ATP ranking #1 early this month, at age 36 after 5 years since he was ranked #1 last time, the eldest #1 in the history of ATP rankings. As all matches that count for ITTF world ranking points are finished after an exciting Team World Cup, we have the luxury of seeing Timo Boll who turns 37 in Mar 2018, returns to WR#1 and becomes the eldest WR#1 in the history of ITTF world ranking. Timo Boll was on vacation and absent from Team World Cup. What a surprising birthday gift!

Since 1991, ITTF employed computerized world ranking. Here are some records of WR#1.
The youngest WR#1 is Kong Linghui, who was 20 years and 3 months old when he first became WR#1 in Jan 1996.
The eldest WR#1 is Werner Schlager at the moment, and will be Timo Boll next month. Werner Schlager was 30 years and 9 months old when he first became WR#1 in Jun 2003.
The shorest WR#1 holder is Werner Schlager, for 1 month.
The longest WR#1 holder is Ma Long, for 64 months in total and 34 months in a row.
The longest time to return to WR#1 is 7 years and 4 months (2003/9-2011/1), for Timo Boll.
 
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Some may wonder how could this happen? It all relies on the dynamic feature of new ITTF WR system starting in Jan 2018. Only 8 best results within a year (except for WTTC and WTTTC) are calculated for WR. Dimitrij Ovtcharov is WR#1 in Jan and Feb 2018 with 16545 points while Timo Boll WR#3 with 15165 points. Timo is winner of Europe Cup in 2018 and his points will increase to 15705 next month. Dima is runner-up of Europe Cup and won 3 singles matches in Team World Cup (300 points each win) and his points will decrease to 15465 next month. Does the difference come from Timo's recent victory over Dima? Not really. Europe Cup winner has 1800 points and runner-up 1620 points. It is the amount of tournaments attended that makes the difference. Timo attended 10 tournaments (including 1 continental team event and 1 continental singles event; only 1 continental event result counts) since Mar 2017; thus his ranking points reflect the best 8 out of 9 results (his R32 at 2017 Japan Open does not count). Dima attended 9 tournaments (including 1 continental team event and 1 continental singles event; only 1 continental event result counts) since Mar 2017; thus his ranking points reflect all 8 results, with no substitution for his Team World Cup result. Fan Zhendong will have 15645 points in Mar 2018, still #2.

Again what do you think of new ITTF WR? Next month, we will see the top 10 as.
1. Timo Boll
2. Fan Zhendong
3. Dimitrij Ovtcharov
4. Lin Gaoyuan
5. Xu Xin
6. Wong Chun Ting
7. Koki Niwa
8. Simon Gauzy
9. Ma Long
10. Kenta Matsudaira
 
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Again what do you think of new ITTF WR? Next month, we will see the top 10 as.
1. Timo Boll
2. Fan Zhendong
3. Dimitrij Ovtcharov
4. Lin Gaoyuan
5. Xu Xin
6. Wong Chun Ting
7. Koki Niwa
8. Simon Gauzy
9. Ma Long
10. Kenta Matsudaira

The same as before -it's totally inaccurate, but trying to adjust to the new reality :)

Thanks for great posts!
 
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Really I mean really does it bother you? when ML is no 9 this ranking is just far from true. We just have to wait few more months maybe 5 tournaments when most of player can have better ratio by playing more. Then we will see who is the first and who is not. Of course I am very happy for Timo Boll, he is amasing player and his new style is just great to watch. Anyway I do not believe his is very happy with the ranking couse he knows best what current position he should have. In my opition after watching a lot of TT and current form of players the top 20 ranking should be like:
1. FZD
2. ML
3. Ovtcharov
4. XX
5. Boll
6. Harimoto
7. Lin Gaoyuan
8. fang Bo
9. Mizutani
10. Niwa
11. Jeoung Yungsik
12. Lee Sangsu
13. Gauzy
14.Wong
15. Freitas
16. Ueda Jin
17. Calderano
18. Chuang
19. Samsonov
20. Groth
 
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NDH

says Spin to win!
I think that anyone who becomes World Number 1 will always have that warm fuzzy feeling of being able to say they made it.....

But deep down, they'll know that it's not real (not yet anyway).

This conversation in a years time will have so much more credibility.
 
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Really I mean really does it bother you? when ML is no 9 this ranking is just far from true. We just have to wait few more months maybe 5 tournaments when most of player can have better ratio by playing more. Then we will see who is the first and who is not. Of course I am very happy for Timo Boll, he is amasing player and his new style is just great to watch. Anyway I do not believe his is very happy with the ranking couse he knows best what current position he should have. In my opition after watching a lot of TT and current form of players the top 20 ranking should be like:
1. FZD
2. ML
3. Ovtcharov
4. XX
5. Boll
6. Harimoto
7. Lin Gaoyuan
8. fang Bo
9. Mizutani
10. Niwa
11. Jeoung Yungsik
12. Lee Sangsu
13. Gauzy
14.Wong
15. Freitas
16. Ueda Jin
17. Calderano
18. Chuang
19. Samsonov
20. Groth
To me, this is one of the most accurate rankings I have seen, except for one glaring omission, that there should be around 8 spots added between #8 and #20 for the additional top 8 players from the China Super League not already on the list, so the list would be the Top 28. That would make it truly accurate. Hopefully one day. To get them added, ITTF would need to annually hold a Beijing Open, a Shanghai Open, a Guangzhou Open and a Zhengzhou Open at least. This would make the ITTF membership more accurate. These Chinese City/Regional Opens would still be bigger and higher level than most of the European Opens, but it would be a major step in the right direction. Other than that, I like this top 20 list.
 
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Again what do you think of new ITTF WR? Next month, we will see the top 10 as.
1. Timo Boll
2. Fan Zhendong
3. Dimitrij Ovtcharov
4. Lin Gaoyuan
5. Xu Xin
6. Wong Chun Ting
7. Koki Niwa
8. Simon Gauzy
9. Ma Long
10. Kenta Matsudaira[/QUOTE]

When you no.7 and then you don't lose a single match and win against no.6 Koki Niwa but next month you no.9 anyway


http://artemutochkin.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/malongdisappointed.jpg
 

NDH

says Spin to win!
Player head to head doesn't matter in my opinion (unless there is literally nothing else separating the players).

Just because player X beats player Y every time they play, it doesn't always mean that player X is the better overall player - It just means that they have the beating of player Y.

I appreciate it's "usually" the case (in this example, of player X being the better player), but it's not ALWAYS the case :)

That sounded much clearer in my head.......


Again what do you think of new ITTF WR? Next month, we will see the top 10 as.
1. Timo Boll
2. Fan Zhendong
3. Dimitrij Ovtcharov
4. Lin Gaoyuan
5. Xu Xin
6. Wong Chun Ting
7. Koki Niwa
8. Simon Gauzy
9. Ma Long
10. Kenta Matsudaira

When you no.7 and then you don't lose a single match and win against no.6 Koki Niwa but next month you no.9 anyway


http://artemutochkin.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/malongdisappointed.jpg[/QUOTE]
 
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There is one more thing that cannot be true. If you take Ma Long and Gauzy
Gauzy is now number 9 and he did not participate in world cup and is going to be 8
Ma Long is now number 7 has won all the matches he played and is going to be 9

Sorry I do not believe your prediction.

One of the benefits of this new WR is it's ease of predictability. You can deduct the points which will expire and add the points earned in Feb to see for yourself. Rain has done her homework.
Couldn't do that with the old system.
 
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Again what do you think of new ITTF WR? Next month, we will see the top 10 as.
1. Timo Boll
2. Fan Zhendong
3. Dimitrij Ovtcharov
4. Lin Gaoyuan
5. Xu Xin
6. Wong Chun Ting
7. Koki Niwa
8. Simon Gauzy
9. Ma Long
10. Kenta Matsudaira

So in the next tournament one of the top 8 gets to play Ma Long in the round of 16.
 
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So in the next tournament one of the top 8 gets to play Ma Long in the round of 16.
Not really. The seeding is determined by the WR upon the entries deadline, usually a month prior to the tournament.
When ML plays German Open next month, he is still within top 8 seeds. But we can look forward to DN and LSW fighting out of qualification at Qatar Open next month!
 
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Its good to see that rain is giving the new system a nice, long amount of time to see how it goes. Also good to see that WorkerBee is still plugging for having all the top Chinese provincial players to be listed in the world rankings.

I look forward to the day when 70 of the top 100 are CNT provincial players. :)
 
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I think it happened to Roger Federer too . Now table tennis Ranking system is similar to tennis , right?
 
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