1. Ma Lin
2. Wang Hao
3. Xu Xin
4. Felix Lebrun
5. Liu Guoliang
6. Ryu Seung Min
7. Kim Taek Soo
8. Kaii Yoshida
It's hard to make these comparisons because of the differences in balls. If they were playing with the 38 celluloid ball then Liu Guoliang should come up to #1 or #2. Also, Liu Guoliang's short pips have since been outlawed (lame) which would make it harder for him in the modern game.
Explanantions:
I can't put Ryu above any of the Chinese players because he could not regularly beat any of them. Never beat Xu Xin even once, as far as I can find. Wang Hao usually won against Ryu, but unfortunately lost at the olympics. Wang Hao was a better player in 2004 anyways, but he choked at the olympics and played too defensive.
Wang Hao vs Xu Xin is a tough one, because they played while Xu was still rising and Wang was declining. Head-to-head they are pretty even. I guess Wang Hao has more medals and such, so this should indicate that he is a better player.
I have a hard time believing that Felix would lose to any of the one-sided penholders playing TPB, because he could very easily initiate backhand-backhand rallies which he would win. Perhaps Liu Guoliang could make up for it in other ways but it's hard to say.
I am still hoping that we get to see a Xu Xin - Felix Lebrun match. Xu said he thinks he can win, and I think I agree. Felix has extremely strong fundamentals but has some very clear weaknesses in terms of strategy and body position. Dang Qiu was able to observe and exploit these weaknesses to come back from 0-2 in the middle of a match, so Xu Xin is almost certainly able to do this as well.
