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China's Ma, Ding secure top seeds for table tennis worlds

Xinhua, April 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

Chinese superstars Ma Long and Ding Ning secured the top seed of men's and women's singles event on Tuesday for 2015 World Table Tennis Championships, which will run from April 26 to May 3 in Suzhou, China.

The seeding was based on International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) April's world ranking, which gave Ma and Ding a chance to get top seed position as world's No. 1 player.

Ding is looking for her second singles title after triumphing in 2011, while Ma is desperate to claim his first singles champion in table tennis worlds.

Zhang Jike and Li Xiaoxia, men's and women's respective defending champs, were seeded No. 3 behind teammates Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen respectively.

Jun Mizutani (Japan) and Dimitrij Ovtcharov (Germany) head to Suzhou as the fifth and sixth seed, and they will be main challengers for Chinese boys.

In women's singles, Feng Tianwei (Singapore) and Kasumi Ishikawa (Japan) are seeded fourth and fifth respectively.

The 14-year-old sensation Mima Ito (Japan) will be seeded 13th in Suzhou after becoming the youngest ever ITTF World Tour women's singles champion in German Open last month.

A total of 310 male and 238 female players from 100 federations will compete in Suzhou. Endi