Doha champions Zhu Yuling and Lin Yun-Ju (Photo WTT)
The completion of WTT Champions Doha, the first event of the season, has had a significant impact on the World Table Tennis Rankings, with players who delivered outstanding performances being rewarded with notable improvements in their standings.
There’s only one place to stay when highlighting the weeks world ranking movements, and that is, for the second time in a row, paying homage to Macau’s Zhu Yuling, who last week celebrated 500 total weeks inside the World Top 20.
This week, by winning the women’s singles title in Doha, Yuling has returned to the Top 5 for the first time since 2019.
Yuling’s highest-ever ranking was World No.1, which she achieved in November 2017. Yuling took a four-year break from table tennis due to illness and also enrolled in a doctoral program before returning to the sport in 2024.
Since her return, her resurgence has been nothing short of inspirational. Her recent win in Lusail Sports Arena comes off the back of a phenomenal 2025, where she won United States Smash.
Yuling now occupies the World No.5 spot, and Chen Xingtong, who lost to the Macao, China player in the final, rises to No.3.
Lin Yun-Ju, who posed alongside Yuling in Doha holding his men’s singles title, has also climbed the world rankings, rising to No.9 and signalling a return to the Top 10.
Yun-Ju last broke into the Top 10 in July 2025, when he was ranked World No. 8. His highest-ever ranking was No. 5 in 2021.
The 24-year-old Yun-Ju has had an outstanding career on the WTT Series, winning his first men’s singles title at WTT Contender Zagreb in 2022. That year, he also made it to the quarterfinals of Singapore Smash and WTT Star Contender Doha.
In 2022, he also finished as runner-up in WTT Contender Almaty 2022 and a year later, would go on to win his second Men’s Singles title at the same event. He followed that triumph up in style by claiming his first WTT Champions trophy, dominating the field in Frankfurt.
But not many would have thought his wait for another singles title would stretch to almost 800 days, especially after he made the final four in Singapore Smash just months later.
Yun-Ju was able to stay among the best in terms of his ranking because he would regularly reach the latter stages of events. In 2024 and 2025, he made it to six semifinals and 10 quarterfinals.
Having got the monkey off his back at the first time of asking in 2026, we could be about to see a monumental year from Yun-Ju.
Meawhile the Lebrun brothers – Felix and Alex – are both in the top ten of the rankings. Felix at number 6 and Lebrun at 10th.
TOP TEN SINGLES RANKINGS
Women: 1. Sun Yingsha (Chn), 2. Wang Manyu (Chn), 3. Chen Xingtong (Chn), 4. Kuai Man(Chn), 5. Zhu Yuling (Mac), 6. Wang Yidi (Chn), 7. Miwa Harimoto (Jpn), 8. Chen Yi (Chn), 9. Mima Ito (Jpn), 10. Hina Hayata (Jpn)
Men: 1. Wang Chuqin (Chn), 2. Lin Shidong (Chn), 3. Hugo Calderano (Bra), 4. Truls Moregard (Swe), 5. Tomokazu Harimoto (Jpn), 6. Felix Lebrun (Fra), 7. Lian Jingkun (Chn), 8. Sora Matsushima (Jpn), 9. Lin Yun-ju (Tpe), 10. Alex Lebrun (Fra)
