LiShifeng

Li Shifeng, twenty-six, holds tenth place in the BWF world rankings and plays men's singles for China. The Chinese right-hander has built a career on far more wins than defeats, a return that keeps him inside the sport's leading group.

A career high of third in the world marks the high point of his ranking history. Getting there took a long sequence of wins; the defeats are far fewer, which is why he has held a place near the top rather than drifting away from it.

When he competes, the thing to track is consistency: whether the win column keeps growing faster than the defeat column, and whether the right-handed singles game he brings can lift his ranking again. Both trends are visible in the data.