Taiwan's top male paddler falls to lowest world ranking since 2019

Taipei, Nov. 5 (CNA) Taiwanese paddler and Olympian Lin Yun-ju's (林昀儒) table tennis world ranking dropped from 12th to 14th in the men's singles, the lowest since July 2019, as announced by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Tuesday.

The ITTF calculates weekly the world rankings for each player as the sum of the best eight results in events played over the preceding 12 months.

Lin was penalized with zero points for two events after being absent from several World Table Tennis (WTT) events. On top of that, the 1,000 points he gained from winning the WTT Champions games in Frankfurt 2023 were also removed from his accumulated ranking points this week after falling outside the one year period.

At the same time, Lin has failed to progress beyond the quarterfinals in any men's singles competition since the Paris Olympics.

The 23-year-old paddler is currently defending his crown at the 2024 WTT Champions Games in Frankfurt and has a chance to bounce back in the rankings.

Lin won his round of 32 match against French table tennis player Alexis Lebrun Monday (German time).

Other Taiwanese players that feature in the the men's singles global top 50 include Kao Cheng-jui (高承睿) at 24th, unchanged from last week; Chuang Chih-yuan (莊智淵), rising one place to 42nd; and Feng Yi-hsin (馮翊新), dropping one spot to 50th.

In the women's singles, Cheng I-ching (鄭怡靜) rose one place to 8th, while Huang Yi-hua (黃怡樺) dropped one to 35th.