Chinese teenager Li Xiaoxia has made the most progress in the top echelons of the women's world rankings issued by the International Table Tennis Federation.

A series of stellar performances at the ITTF Pro Tour sees China's 18-year-old Li Xiaoxiao progress to Number 4 on the women's world ranking list issued by the International Table Tennis Federation.

It is the highest position she has ever reached in her career, her previous best being Number 11, reached one month earlier in February 2006.

The only players to beat Li Xiaoxia in World Ranking events in 2006 are her teammates Zhang Yining and Guo Yue, the players ranked 1 and 2 in the latest world rankings.

Li lost to Guo in the semi-finals of the Liebherr Slovenian Open in January, and in quarter-finals at the Kuwait International Open Salwa Cup.

Meanwhile, she was beaten by Zhang in the semi-finals of the Liebherr Croatian Open and at the Liebherr Qatar Open in the final.

China's Wang Liqin still dominates men's World rankings, followed by Timo Boll of Germany.

China's youngster Wang Hao has outshined Belarus veteran Vladimir Samosonov to move into the Number 3 position.

(Source:  CRIENGLISH.com)