ITTF 2025 week 7 world ranking has been announced, Chinese young Lin Sidong created a new record, that is, beyond the Kong Linghui, become the youngest in the history of the ping world men’s singles world ranking No. 1 winner – can be achieved at the age of 19 years, 9 months and 24 days of age, is indeed the future generation of fear.
However, at the same time of praise, some people also questioned Lin Shidong: never participated in the Olympic Games, the World Series singles, only one World Cup singles experience has not won a medal, really deserve the ‘world’s first’ this four words? So how should we evaluate Lin’s current ranking?
Firstly, let’s take a look at some of the top ranked players in the men’s singles world before Lin Sidong.
Although table tennis has been played for hundreds of years, the world ranking we are talking about now is mainly the system implemented after the ‘computer era’ in 1991. 20 athletes have been ranked No.1 in the world in men’s singles, they are.
Persson, Gatting, Waldner, Taesef, Wang Tao, Kong Linghui, Liu Guoliang, Samsonov, Wang Liqin, Ma Lin, Timo boll, Schlager, Wang Hao, Ma Long, Zhang Jike, Xu Xin, Ovtcharov, Fan Zhendong, Wang Chuqin, Lin Sidong.
Note: The above is sorted by when the athletes were first ranked No.1, but in fact many have been ranked No.1 several times and the times were not consecutive.
Before Lin Shidong, no one in the ping world has been ranked No.1 in men’s singles within 20 years of age. The closest is Kong Linghui, who was 20 years, 2 months and 22 days old, followed by Wang Hao, who reached this achievement when he was 20 years, 11 months and 16 days old. As for Lin Sidong, he was 19 years, 9 months and 24 days old on the day he ranked No.1 in the world (11 February 2025), making him the only person younger than 20 years old.
While recognising the strength of Lin Sidong, we cannot ignore the three objective factors that contributed to his No.1 ranking.
It is indisputable that any athlete who wants to be ranked No.1 in the world in any era needs to be backed up by good results. Lin’s recent results are obvious to all, otherwise he would not have been able to outperform his contemporaries and reach the top of the points list.
However, as the saying goes, ‘the time has come for all the world to work together’. Objectively speaking, Lin’s achievement at the age of 19 is due to a certain number of opportunities and objective factors, which mainly include the following three aspects:
First of all, the current ITTF points rules are relatively easy to rankings ups and downs – for example, in the past, the increase or decrease of points used to be not simply based on the number of participation and results, but also based on the ranking of the two athletes before the fight to calculate the difference in points, and then combined with the level of the competition to determine the points or deductions, which is very cumbersome, and now the participation in more, and achieve good results can rise quickly. It is very cumbersome to add or deduct points according to the ranking of the two athletes before the competition;
Secondly, there are relatively more big tournaments with more points. Lin Shidong has participated in four WTT Grand Slam tournaments in the recent year, and two of them have gained 4000 points, accounting for about half of his total points (8025 points), so even if he has not participated in the Olympics or World Singles, he can still gain enough points from tournaments such as the Grand Slam tournaments.
Finally, the recent absence of Ma Long, Fan Zhendong and other famous players from international tournaments also gives Lin more possibilities to move up, and the WTT also has the rule of 0 points for withdrawing from WTT tournaments (e.g., Wang Chuqin has 1 0 point out of 8 valid points), which creates an opportunity for Lin, who is a strong and young player who has never withdrawn from tournaments lately, to move up.
Sanweisport-Professional Table Tennis Equipment Provider
Only 11.9 USD
- Taiji 210 bat is an allround premade high quality table tennis bat for the starters, it’s the best seller and the most popular bat of the Taiji Bat series.
- The blade is made by 7 layers of decent pure wood, coated by two sides of ITTF approved rubber makes it useable for competition, with a comfortable flared handle.
- It saves your time for selecting from thousands of combinations and just gives you the right one with great quality/price ratio.
- 2-Stars Table Tennis Bat is perfect for amateur gamers !
In fact, top players, including Lin Sidong, usually don’t care much about the world No.1 ranking.
After winning the men’s singles at the WTT Singapore Grand Slam, Lin was asked by the host how he felt about being ranked number one in the world, and he said that he hadn’t thought about it that much and hadn’t counted on it; and Wang Tao, a former Chinese table tennis team team member who was ranked number one in the past, also revealed when he talked about a similar topic, he hadn’t won the singles world title and would be hard to be recognised even if he was ranked number one.
In fact, this is also very understandable, after all, the athletes career pursuit is nothing more than for the glory of the country as well as to enhance their own social value, commercial value, and these are to rely on excellent results, especially the results of the competition to obtain, and the ranking of the relationship between high and low is not very big, if the results are not excellent, ‘the world’s number one’ will become a burden for the athletes. If the results are not good, the ‘world number one’ will become a burden for the athletes.
If we have to say that the ranking has any practical significance, it is probably a bit convenient to avoid meeting the masters too early in the draw; but even in terms of the draw, it can be said that there is no difference between the number one and number two in the world ranking, and the top four are almost the same, and then the top eight can barely be, not to mention that in order to win the championships, we still have to beat all the opponents we meet, and the competition in the men’s singles is always very fierce, and it is common for the low-ranked players to beat the high-ranked athletes. The situation of defeating high ranked athletes often occurs, so no matter what the signing position must be ready to fight a tough battle.
With Lin Sidong’s level, he has a chance to be ranked No.1 no matter what the rules are, but his historical status still needs to be established by the champion of the tournament.
Lin Shidong’s technical strength, physical quality and his age, no matter what kind of points, ranking rules, he has the possibility to reach the world’s first position, and even if he can’t realise this achievement at the age of 19, it doesn’t matter too much, the key is to look at the results of the big games, especially the singles performance.
In the men’s Bing has 20 world No.1 athletes, there are as many as 16 people have been singles world champion, 11 people in the ranking of the world No.1 when already got the singles world champion, including Kong Linghui, as for the retired, and did not get the singles world champion of the famous players (including Wang Tao) is always difficult to be called contemporaneous ‘the strongest king’, and this has also become the ‘strongest king’. ‘This has also become the eternal regret of their career.
It is worth mentioning that the two closest male players, Wang Chuqin and Lin Shidong, have not won the singles world championship, but they are still active athletes, so they still have a chance, and they will certainly continue to work hard towards this goal in the new cycle, which is worth everyone’s attention.
What does Lin need to do well in the next part of his career to keep his rankings and results stable?
As far as technique is concerned, Lin Shidong has already perfected his game and there are almost no loopholes, the biggest problem is whether he can stand firm in the confrontation with fast players in the close table, because even though his ranking has reached the world’s No.1 and he has beaten famous players many times, Lin Shidong’s recent record against Harimoto Tomokazu and Junior LeBrun is obviously a disadvantage, which is mainly due to the loss in the speed, so how to avoid the weaknesses and make up for the weaknesses has become a difficult problem before Lin Shidong. Lin Sidong in front of the problem.
In addition, as a junior Lin Sidong on the one hand to continue to sharpen the psychological quality, increase the ability to resist pressure, on the other hand, also can not ignore the changes in the physical condition, do not ‘rely on’ the young do not pay attention to recuperation, after all, with the age of the growth of his injuries will accumulate, so in playing ‘youth ball’ at the same time also need to continue to play! So while playing ‘youth ball’, he should also continue to sum up his experience and improve his tactical level.
So what do you think of Lin Sidong’s future development ceiling? Who will be the first to win the world singles title, him or Wang Chuqin? Feel free to write your own predictions here!
