YEAR 
The 20-year-old Japanese international Seiji Ono wasn’t among the favorites prior to the World Championships in Pyongyang, but eventually, he won the singles title and became the World Ranking leader for the first time in his career. The highest-ranking European player in 1978 was the Hungarian star Gabor Gergely, who finished 1979 at the #5 spot.
TOP 30 PLAYERS IN THE WORLD RANKING
#
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
Player
Seiji Ono
Guo Yuehua
Liang Geliang
Li Zhenshi
Gabor Gergely
Lu Yaohua
Dragutin Šurbek
Norio Takashima
Josef Dvoraček
Tibor Klampar
Desmond Douglas
Istvan Jonyer
Milan Orlowski
Huang Liang
Hideo Gotoh
Shi Zhihao
Jacques Secretin
Tibor Kreisz
Peter Stellwag
Janos Takacs
Ralf Wosik
Engelbert Hüging
Valery Shevchenko
Serban Dobosi
Claus Pedersen
Hans-Joachim Nolten
Christian Martin
Damir Jurcic
Hong Chol
Cho Yong-ho
N
WC
1/4
1/4
R16
1/4
1/4
R16
R16
R16
R16
R16
R16
R16
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
E12
x
x
x
x
5th
x
x
x
x
4th
x
x
x
x
9th
6th
8th
x
12th
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
PRO TOUR
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Description
N – Nationality WC – World Championships E12 – Europe Top 12 & other flags – Pro Tour events
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