by Ian Marshall, Editor

The win was very much the culmination of four quite outstanding months on the Seamaster ITTF World Tour. He had concluded 2017 by succeeding in Astana at the Grand Finals; in late January he had maintained that form emerging successful in Budapest, notably claiming the top step of the podium on the day before celebrating his 21st birthday.

A new ranking scheme, in January and February he was listed at no.2, sandwiched between the German Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Timo Boll; in March it was the same but with Timo Boll at the top of the order and Dimitrij Ovtcharov in third place. However, when he won in Doha he started play as the top seed, Timo Boll being the second seed, the reason being that the February World Rankings determined the order of preference.

In Doha, Fan Zhendong was never seriously troubled; in five games he beat the Japanese duo of Maharu Yoshimura and Jun Mizutani, before ousting Denmark’s Jonathan Groth and colleague Xu Xin by the same margin. A place in the final booked, he secured the title overcoming Brazil’s Hugo Calderano in four straight games.

Officially named top of the rankings on Sunday 1st April; he has been there ever since that date; on Monday 31st December when the year ends, it will be 275 days without a break. It makes him the 42nd player to ascend to the top of the order since the first rankings were released in 1928, when the name of Hungary’s Zoltan Mechlovits appeared in first place.

Furthermore, he is the 18th player from China to head the list but if he is to maintain the place at the pinnacle for the longest period in history, he will have to keep winning for at least the next five years!

Compatriot Zhuang Zedong heads the order; he was listed at no.1 for 1,947 days; however, in 2019 he could be overtaken, Ma Long at 1,945 days is on his heels.