The 22-year-old Liu last held the world number one spot in October 2010, but after a fruitful campaign which has seen her take the Asian Cup title and reach the final in five of the six events in which she has partaken this season, she has regained the mantle after a wait of almost three years.

Ding will now go into next month's World Cup as the second favourite behind her compatriot, whilst fellow Chinese world and Olympic champion Li Xiaoxia remains in third position in the world rankings and Singapore's Feng Tianwei remains the only non-Chinese representative in the women's top five.

Japanese star Kasumi Ishikawa moves into the top ten in ninth position, becoming the only player not born in China to place in the top ten, whist Belarussian Viktoria Pavlovich climbs three spots to 12th to stand as the highest-ranked European player following her win at the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Czech Open.

Japan's Masato Shiono has now moved up 136 places in just three months after winning his first and second Open titles in Japan and the Czech Republic

China's Ma Long retains the top spot in the men's rankings for the third consecutive month with his win at the 2013 Harmony Open in Suzhou, ahead of team-mates Xu Xin and former world champion Wang Hao in second and third respectively.

World and Olympic singles champion Zhang Jike remains in fourth place, whilst German pair Timo Boll and Dimitryi Ovtcharov follow in fifth and sixth respectively.

The 16-year-old Chinese prodigy Fan Zhendong continues to show his incredible promise as he moves into tenth position, and previously unheard of 27-year-old Masato Shiono of Japan continues his astonishing assault on the ITTF rankings, jumping from world number 188 to number 52 in just three months after following up his maiden Open win at the Japan Open with a second win at the Czech Open.

To view the full ITTF World Rankings for September, click here.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]z