Fan Zhendong of China hits a return during the men's singles final match against his compatriot Ma Long at the World Table Tennis Singapore Smash 2022 in Singapore, March 20, 2022. (THEN CHIH WEY / XINHUA)

BEIJING - Chinese paddlers Fan Zhendong and Sun Yingsha maintained their leading positions as the International Table Tennis Federation released its Week 30 world rankings on Tuesday. Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto climbed to world No 4 following his comeback victory in the World Table Tennis Champions final.

Despite being deducted 1,400 points for not competing at the WTT Champions, Fan has a solid advantage in the men's singles world rankings with 5,500 points

Despite being deducted 1,400 points for not competing at the WTT Champions, Fan has a solid advantage in the men's singles world rankings with 5,500 points, followed by his compatriots Ma Long (3,700) and Liang Jingkun (3,085).

Harimoto recorded an epic comeback victory in full games over China's Lin Gaoyuan in the WTT Champions final. He is now close to his previous career-best ranking of No 3, with a gap of 65 points separating Liang and him.

Patrick Franziska of Germany hit a career-high No 11 after making it to the WTT Champions final four. Despite his heart-broken defeat to Harimoto, Lin managed to climb eight places to No 12.

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China's Sun Yingsha competes against China's Chen Meng during the women's singles table tennis final match at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo on July 29, 2021. (ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT / AFP)

Sun led Chinese paddlers to take up the women's singles top four positions, with Chen Meng, Wang Manyu and Wang Yidi following her.

Japan's Miyuu Kihara, who reached the quarterfinals at the WTT Champions, moved up two places to a career-high No 13.  

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