Here is the Top 10 before the WTTC 1997 from Apr 26-May 5.
1 » 1710 KONG Linghui CHN
2 » 1709 WALDNER Jan-Ove SWE
3 » 1704 LIU Guoliang CHN
4 » 1691 SAMSONOV Vladimir BLR
5 » 1654 KIM Taek Soo KOR
6 » 1648 WANG Tao CHN
7 » 1620 DING Song CHN
8 » 1616 SAIVE Jean-Michel BEL
9 » 1588 ROSSKOPF Jorg GER
10 » 1577 PRIMORAC Zoran CRO
Waldner actually played really bad in the Team event, losing 0-2 to Jean-Philippe Saive and 0-2 to Samsonov. Nonetheless, he beat KLH 2-0 in the QF. In retrospect, people suspected he lay low for the Singles event.
KLH got taken out by Samsonov in the SF in 4 games. OTOH, LGL went through hell in the Rd of 64.