This Is How Table Tennis World Rankings Work

In the fast-paced world of table tennis, world rankings are more than just numbers—they’re the definitive measure of a player’s standing in the sport. These rankings determine tournament seedings, Olympic qualifications, and often, a player’s entire career trajectory.

The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), the sport’s governing body, maintains these crucial rankings. From elite professionals to rising junior stars, from singles specialists to doubles champions, every competitive table tennis player worldwide aims to climb the ITTF ranking ladder.

But how exactly does a player rise to World #1? What separates a top-10 player from a top-100 player?

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll decode the ITTF ranking system, exploring its calculation methods, tracing its evolution over time, and highlighting the legendary players who’ve reached its summit.

How ITTF World Rankings Are Calculated

ITTF rankings are based on points players earn from their tournament performances. Players accumulate points based on how far they advance in each tournament, with more prestigious tournaments offering more points.

There are hundreds of table tennis competitions that award ranking points every year, so it’s easy to get confused.

World Table Tennis (WTT), which operates under the ITTF, organizes many of the major competitions that award ranking points. These WTT events form the backbone of the professional circuit, but there are also several non-WTT tournaments that contribute to a player’s ranking, such as continental competitions, the World Cup, the World Table Tennis Championships, and the Olympic Games.

In terms of which tournaments award the most ranking points, there are three key types everyone should know about:

• The 4x WTT Grand Smashes
• The World Table Tennis Championships
• The Olympic Games. 

These 3 competition types each award up to 2,000 points each, marking them as the top tier events in the table tennis calendar. Further to that, we’ve grouped events into a few different tiers:

Second Tier (1,500 Points)

• World Cup
• WTT Finals

Third Tier (1,000 Points)

• WTT Champions Events (4 per year)

Lower Tiers

• Star Contenders (600 Points)
• Continental Championships (500 Points)
• Regular WTT Contenders (400 Points)
• WTT Feeder Events (150 Points)

Below that, there are other tournaments such as other international events and youth events, but they award even fewer points.

A given player’s total points are calculated by adding the 8 events in which they earned the most points in the last 365 days. So, if they have participated in 9 or more events in the last 365 days, only the top 8 results will count towards their sum of points.

What’s the History of the Table Tennis Ranking?

Starting in January 1987 (quite late in the history of table tennis), the ITTF has been publishing rankings on a regular basis. Initially, the world rankings were merely a way to recap the results of each of the World Cups.

The ITTF Pro Tour was established in 1996, way before the WTT circuit was invented. This was when the world rankings really started gaining weight and credibility.

The ITTF Pro Tour was the equivalent of today’s WTT circuit. The WTT brand is, essentially, an upgraded version of the ITTF Pro Tour.

In 2001, the ranking system changed, along with the scoring system. And, in 2020, the inaugural WTT event was held, changing the rankings system once again.

How Has The Ranking System Changed?

The ranking system has undergone three major changes. In its first iteration, world rankings simply ordered players based on their World Cup performances.

With the advent of the ITTF Pro Tour, the ranking system changed once again to weigh the tour’s tournaments together with the World Cups and the Olympic Games.

And, finally, the system was revamped in that players weren’t given “starting points” based on their wins, but rather, they started at 0 points and gained points based on their placements in the various tournaments we talked about before.

What Categories Are Included In The Table Tennis World Rankings?

There are 6 main categories and many more subcategories in the table tennis world rankings.

These categories are: singles, doubles, doubles individuals, youth, team, and para rankings.

While singles rankings are straightforward, doubles rankings work differently. The ITTF maintains two types of doubles rankings:

• Traditional doubles rankings that rank pairs as teams
• Individual doubles rankings that measure a player’s success with all partners

A player might be ranked #15 in singles, #8 in mixed doubles with their regular partner, and #12 in the individual doubles ranking based on their results with multiple partners. The individual doubles ranking is particularly important for players who frequently change partners or compete in both same-gender and mixed doubles events.

Tournament points for doubles events are typically lower than singles events, reflecting the different competitive dynamics of paired play. You might enjoy our table tennis doubles guide for more information.

The most cited rankings are the men’s singles and women’s singles rankings, but there are more than 40 different official table tennis rankings.

For example, para table tennis is divided into 3 subcategories: classes 1-5 (wheelchair), classes 6-10 (standing), and class 11 (intellectual impairment).

And, there are 8 different rankings in each of the 3 para table tennis categories: men’s and women’s singles, men’s, women’s and mixed doubles, and men’s, women’s, and mixed doubles individuals.

That means there are 24 different official ITTF rankings in the para table tennis category alone.

Who Has Held the World Number 1 Ranking?

Throughout table tennis history, many exceptional players have achieved the prestigious world number 1 ranking, including the greatest table tennis player of all time – Ma Long. Here are the players who’ve held the top spot the longest as of early 2025.

We don’t have the same statistics for the women’s rankings, but some of the most dominant players who’ve held the #1 rankings include Ding Ning, Zhang Yining, Sun Yingsha, Wang Nan, and Chen Meng.