Coach Jia Yi Liu and the returning number one Paul Drinkhall

Andrew Baggaley’s reign as the British number one was short-lived as the new ITTF World Rankings display.

The man from Milton Keynes was displaced after just one month by Paul Drinkhall who reclaims his top British spot. Drinkhall, 21, remained in 144th place in the world while Baggaley dropped five places from 142nd to 147th.

British number three Liam Pitchford continued his dramatic rise up the rankings by moving up another 29 places in November to reach a new high of 171st in the world. This means the youngster from Derbyshire has now risen 98 places in two months.

Joanna Parker has also reached a new personal high of 128th in the womens’ world rankings. Her previous highest was 130th in February 2010.

Womens’ number two Kelly Sibley had a minor drop of two places but all of the other six women in the Olympic Long List rose in their world rankings.

The full December positions for the Olympic Long List players are shown below:

(English unless stated)

Men Rank: Name: Change: Women Rank: Name: Change:
144 Paul Drinkhall + 0 128 Joanna Parker + 10
147 Andrew Baggaley – 5 159 Kelly Sibley – 2
171 Liam Pitchford + 29 215 Liu Na (IRL) + 6
226 Gavin Rumgay (SCO) + 5 401 Naomi Owen (WAL) + 12
245 Darius Knight + 0 488 Hannah Hicks + 15
262 Daniel Reed + 5 489 Alice Loveridge (GGY) + 17
439 Chris Doran + 12 497 Emily Bates + 16
650 Gavin Evans – 57 554 Charlotte Carey (WAL) + 13