China's Xu, Chen remain world No 1 on ITTF March ranking

BEIJING - Chinese paddlers Xu Xin and Chen Meng retained their world No 1 positions among men's and women's players respectively as the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has released its ranking for March.

Men's top 10 witnessed quite slim change, as China's Xu, Fan Zhendong, Ma Long and Lin Gaoyuan claimed four highest places.

It was the seventh time for penholder Xu to take the top spot since last July. He currently possesses a 345-point advantage over Fan.

Lin was followed by Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto, who had won the ITTF World Tour Hungarian Open last month.

German veteran Timo Boll climbed one spot to 10th, with his compatriot Dimitrij Ovtcharov going the other way.

The scenario was quite similar in women's category, as Chinese Taipei's Cheng I-Ching moved two places up to No 8 and Feng Tianwei of Singapore dropped to ninth.

Chen has been sitting at the helm since last June. She was followed by fellow Chinese Sun Yingsha and Japan's Mima Ito.

Other Chinese female paddlers among the top 10 are Wang Manyu, Liu Shiwen, Ding Ning and Zhu Yuling.