Iran’s Safaei up by 98 spots in ITTF Women’s World Ranking
Iranian table tennis player Shima Safaei enjoyed a massive jump in the recent ITTF World Rankings, released on Tuesday, climbing 98 spots to reach 185th place in the women’s singles list.
Safaei won an impressive third-place trophy at the latest WTT Feeder Series event in Cappadocia, Türkiye last week – the country’s first women’s title in the history of the competition.
Safaei defeated some prominent opponents en route to the semifinals, before suffering a 3-0 loss (11-5, 11-4, 11-8) to Asuka Sasao of Japan.
Safaei began her campaign with a straight-game victory over Uzbekistan’s Markhabo Magdieva, and went on come out victorious against eighth-seed Brazilian Laura Watanabe by the same scoreline in the round of 32.
Safaei continued with a 3-1 win against the host’s Sibel Altinkaya, and then held off a fightback from second-seed Dian Meshref of Egypt in a five-game thriller (12-10, 12-10, 5-11, 9-11, 11-8) to advance to the last four.
Meanwhile, Mahshid Ashtari moved up by 89 places and Elina Rahimi jumped 116 spots to sit 263rd and 276th in the women’s singles ranking, respectively.
The two were also part of the women’s draw in Cappadocia, with Ashtari suffering a 3-0 defeat against ultimate champion and top-seed top-seeded Hitomi Sato of Japan in the last 16, while Rahimi crashed out in the round of round of 32, courtesy of 3-2 setback against the host’s Ece Harac.
Sun Yingsha, Wang Manyu, and Chen Xingtong complete an all-Chinese top three in the women’s ranking.
In the men’s singles ranking, No. 80 Noshad A’alamian remains the highest-ranked Iranian, with young prodigy Benyamin Faraji in the 135th place.
Navid Shams (160th) and Nima A’alamian (164th) are the other two Iranian players in the World Men’s Ranking.
Wan Chuqin remained the world No. 1, followed by fellow-Chinese Lin Shidong and Brazilian Hugo Calderano.