What Sun Yingsha’s 217-Week No. 1 Streak Means
Sun Yingsha held women’s singles world No. 1 for 217 weeks. Here is when the streak ended, why points expiry mattered and where the run ranks.
Sun Yingsha held the women’s singles world No. 1 ranking continuously for 217 weeks, from July 2022 until Wang Manyu replaced her in the ranking released on September 14, 2026. The ITTF identifies it as the second-longest streak for a women’s singles No. 1, behind Zhang Yining’s 240 weeks.
| Measure | Sun Yingsha’s record |
|---|---|
| Uninterrupted time at No. 1 | 217 weeks |
| ITTF start date | July 18, 2022 |
| Run ended | September 14, 2026 |
| Historical position | Second-longest women’s singles No. 1 streak |
| Longer streak | Zhang Yining, 240 weeks |
| Player who moved to No. 1 | Wang Manyu |
What “217 weeks” means
The figure measures an uninterrupted period at the top of the ranking. It does not mean Sun played 217 tournaments, went unbeaten for 217 weeks or won every event during that time.
The ITTF dates the start of her reign to July 18, 2022. Some reports use July 19—the date on which they say she overtook Chen Meng, including ECNS’s four-year retrospective. That one-day difference does not change the official description of the run as a 217-week streak.
It is also a streak record, not a final career total. If Sun returns to No. 1, she would begin a new spell and add to her cumulative time at the top, but the uninterrupted streak that ended in September 2026 would remain 217 weeks.
Sun finished 23 weeks short of Zhang’s benchmark:
240 − 217 = 23 weeks
Why the streak ended without a new loss
A world ranking is a points table based on eligible tournament results, not a live estimate of who would win a match today.
Under the ITTF World Ranking Regulations updated January 27, 2026, a singles total is generally the sum of a player’s eight highest non-expired results. The lists are published weekly, and points ordinarily expire in the corresponding ranking week one year after entering the ranking. The regulations allow longer validity in certain circumstances for continental championships, games and cups.
Sun had not competed internationally since winning the United States Smash in July 2026. Points from her 2025 results at WTT Champions Yokohama, Europe Smash and WTT Champions Macao then expired, causing her to fall below Wang, Xinhua reported.
Wang, meanwhile, won the 2026 Europe Smash in Malmö. WTT’s account of the change notes that Sun missed the 2026 events in Yokohama and Macao as well as Europe Smash while the corresponding 2025 points expired.
The change therefore did not require Sun to lose a match that week. It followed from three connected movements:
- older points expired;
- Sun did not replace them at the corresponding 2026 events; and
- Wang retained enough stronger counted results to move ahead.
This is why inactivity can change a player’s position in a rolling points system. The guide to world-ranking mechanics explains how rankings differ from performance ratings, while the points-expiry forecasting method shows how to model an approaching change.
The ranking after the streak
Rankings need a date because the totals keep moving. In the official 2026 Week 40 women’s singles list dated September 28, Wang remained No. 1 with 9,115 points and Sun was No. 2 with 8,975. The gap was 140 points.
That list shows 2,000-point wins for Sun at both the 2026 Singapore Smash and United States Smash, plus 1,500 points for winning the 2026 World Cup. Those results make the interpretation clear: the end of the streak was a narrow change in a time-limited results table, not evidence by itself of a sudden collapse in Sun’s playing level.
The precise record is: Sun Yingsha held the women’s singles world No. 1 ranking continuously for 217 weeks, the second-longest streak on record, before Wang Manyu took over in September 2026.