Top 10 Longest Reigning World №1 Men’s Table Tennis Players Of All Time
Best Table Tennis Player In The World: The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) introduced a new method of ranking Table Tennis players across the world in 2001. Since then, several players have reached the no. 1 in the Men’s Singles ranking.
This list, which is dominated by Chinese players, will rank players based on how long have they held the №1 Men’s Singles Table Tennis player.
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- Ma Long (China)
Considered by many the greatest Table Tennis player of all time, Ma Long has spent the longest time at the №1 position for a whopping 64 months, or just over five years.
His longest reign at the peak started in March 2015, he remained №1 for 33 months straight (till December 2017. He then spent many smaller periods in the next six years.
He also has the record for five Olympic gold medals in Table Tennis.
- Wang Liqin (China)
A two-time Olympic gold medallist and 11-time World Champion, Wang Liqin was one of the first World №1 Men’s Table Tennis player under the new rankings. He spent a total of 52 months (just over four months) on the top.
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- Fan Zhendong (China)
Photo: Getty Images
The current World №1 first reached the summit in April 2018. Since then, he has won Olympic gold and silver medals and has spent 26 months as the №1 Men’s Table Tennis player.
- Wang Hao (China)
A two-time Olympic gold medallist, Wang Hao was the World №1 Men’s Table Tennis player for 24 months (two years) across two reigns. His longest reign of 21 months spanned from October 2007 to July 2009.
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- Xu Xin (China)
One of the greatest players of the 21st century, Xu Xin is a two-time Olympic and 10-time World Champion. He also spent 23 months as World №1 Men’s Table Tennis player, first reaching the mountain top in January 2013.
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- Ma Lin (China)
The only player to win Singles, Doubles, and Team Olympic gold in the same competition (Beijing 2008), Ma Lin was also a World №1 Men’s Table Tennis player for 17 months, with his first reign starting in October 2002.
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- Timo Boll (Germany)
The first of two Germans on this list, Timo Boll always finished behind the Chinese and the Koreans in the Olympics and the World Championship, but he was the World №1 Men’s Table Tennis player for 11 months between 2002 and 2003.
- Zhang Jike (China)
Considered one of the most stylish Table Tennis players of all time, Zhang Jike has won three Olympic golds and a silver. He was also the World’s no.1 Men’s TT player for seven months from June to December 2012.
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- Dimitrij Ovtcharov (Germany)
Born in Ukraine when the nation was part of USSR, Dimitrij Ovtcharov has become one of the best European Table Tennis players of this era. Having won two Olympic silvers as part of Team Germany, Dimitrij spent a stint of two months as the World №1 Men’s Table Tennis player in January and February 2018.
- Werner Schlager (Austria)
The only Austrian on the list, Werner Schlager was the World №1 Men’s Table Tennis player for one month in June 2003. He has a gold and a bronze medal in the Singles event of the World Championships.
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