Sun Yingsha marks four straight years as ITTF world No. 1

Sun Yingsha has held the ITTF women’s singles No. 1 ranking for four straight years since July 18, 2022, and the latest proof came in Macao, where she beat Wang Manyu 4-1 for a third consecutive Women’s World Cup title. World Table Tennis marked the milestone as a four-year stay at the top, a run that has turned the ranking into a measure of Sun’s control, not just her consistency.

The path to that stretch was not a straight line. Sun first reached No. 1 in February 2022, slipped briefly to No. 2, then reclaimed the top spot on July 18, 2022. She has not given it back since. In modern women’s table tennis, where the top ranking can swing on a bad week or a single deep run from a rival, that kind of uninterrupted hold separates a champion from the rest of the field.

Her latest title defense in Macao showed why. In the Women’s Singles final, Sun beat teammate Wang Manyu 11-9, 11-8, 13-11, 8-11, 11-7, taking the first three games and then closing after Wang forced a fourth. The scoreline mattered as much as the trophy count: Sun kept control in a match packed with pressure points, then finished the job against one of China’s most demanding internal challengers. The ITTF said the victory made history as her third consecutive Women’s World Cup title.

The ranking streak also sits inside a larger résumé that already includes Olympic hardware. Olympics.com described Sun in January 2025 as world No. 1 with two Olympic gold medals and one silver. Earlier, in March 2023, the same outlet noted that she had been selected for Tokyo 2020 before turning 21, making her the youngest Chinese table tennis Olympian at the time. Put together, those markers explain why Sun’s grip on No. 1 has lasted so long: she has been winning the sport’s biggest matches since the start of her senior career, and the next title race still runs through her paddle.