For the first time since 2018, there is no Chinese at the top table tennis table

No nation dominates table tennis like China. But the dominance is crumbling. The Chinese world number one Wang Chuqin is only number four. Two Japanese and a Frenchman overtook him.

For the first time since March 2018, no Chinese lead the men's world rankings of table tennis professionals. In the latest ranking, 19-year-old Japanese Sora Matsushima took the lead. Wang Chuqin from China, who had previously been in first place, fell back to fourth place.

Before Matsushima, Timo Boll was the last non-Chinese in first place in the ranking. The record European champion from Germany was at the top of the world rankings more than eight years ago, and since then China has dominated, as so often. In the past quarter century, before Matsushima, only three non-Chinese had topped the world rankings: Boll was at the top several times, and his long-time companion Dimitrij Ovtcharov and the Austrian Werner Schlager also managed to break through Chinese dominance.

While Boll, 45, and Schlager, 54, have ended their careers, Ovtcharov, 38, is still among the world's best. The top player from Bundesliga club TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell is currently in 19th place, making him the second best German behind former European champion Dang Qiu from Borussia Düsseldorf (tenth place).

Chinese dominance is increasingly crumbling. At the World Cup in London in the spring, the former men's superior team suffered their first World Cup defeats in 26 years in the group stage, but still won the title. At the Asian Games, China recently missed out on team gold for the first time in 32 years after losing to Japan in the final.

In the top ten of the world rankings, alongside Wang Chuqin, only Lin Shidong from China is in ninth place. In addition to Matsushima and his compatriot Tomokazu Harimoto (third place), players from France (Felix and Alexis Lebrun in second and eighth place), Sweden (Truls Möregårdh, fifth place) and Brazil (Hugo Calderano, seventh place) dominate the picture.

From a Chinese perspective, the world rankings for women are more encouraging. This is led by Sun Yingsha, and besides her there are four other Chinese women in the top seven places.