A big month for Andrew Baggaley has resulted in him top of the British players in the latest world rankings.
The February ranking was released by the ITTF today and it saw the 28 year old from Milton Keynes surge up 25 places in the latest list to reach 119th – his highest ever world ranking.
His rise was on the back of his excellent performance at the Hungarian World Tour event where he reached the round of 16 in the men’s singles. Although a week later in Slovenia the results proved less satisfactory for the English players, Baggaley’s triumphs over Emmanuel Lebesson and Adam Lindner in Hungary helped him to reach this new career high.
With Joanna Parker halting her recent mesmeric rise up the rankings, Baggaley is now the highest ranked Britain in the world – just in time for the Olympics, and a perfect present exactly four weeks from his 29th birthday.
His closest compatriot, Paul Drinkhall, also rose in the rankings but by a much smaller margin of just nine places to 134th. However, for the majority of other Olympic contenders there were falls in the ranks.
Following the news of the Olympic shortlist being released, except for Baggaley and Drinkhall, only Wales’ Naomi Owen experienced considerable upward movement in the February rankings. She climbed a respectable 32 places to try and close the gap on Irish player Na Liu as the race for the Olympics heats up. Daniel Reed, the new world number 257 also rose by three places.
*English unless stated
| Men Rank: | Name: | Change: | Women Rank: | Name: | Change: |
| 119 | Andrew Baggaley | + 25 | 140 | Joanna Parker | – 13 |
| 134 | Paul Drinkhall | + 9 | 164 | Kelly Sibley | – 8 |
| 175 | Liam Pitchford | – 1 | 224 | Na Liu (IRL) | – 8 |
| 228 | Gavin Rumgay (SCO) | – 7 | 339 | Naomi Owen (WAL) | + 32 |
| 242 | Darius Knight | – 2 | |||
| 257 | Daniel Reed | + 3 |