ranks the first of vs ranks first of

Some examples from the web:

• Jul 19, 2013 ... Jiangtong, on the list of World Top 500, ranks the first of Jiangxi and the 25th of the list. Besides, Aishide and Renrenle which founded by Jiangxi people are also on the list. Jiangtong, with business revenue of 158.556 billion ...
• In September 2008, the “China Real Estate Top10 Research Group” issued “ 2008 Brand Value Research Report of China Real Estate Companies”, in which Poly Real Estate, for the forth year, ranks the first of “ brand value of the state- owned ...
• The number of 5-star hotels managed by Jinling ranks the first of hotel management companies in China. The company has been named to the list of “ Top 10 China's Hotel Groups” by Hotel magazine for 3 consecutive years, and “ China's Most ...
• Sep 30, 2013 ... The proportion of Chinese students in all international students in Australia reached 22%, which ranks the first of all. NSW became the first choice of tourism destination for Chinese tourists. The latest international tourism ...

Some examples from the web:

• It ranks first of fourteen in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. In 2012, the College was one of 24 schools receiving the first NCAA Division II Presidents' Award for Academic Excellence. The award recognizes athletics programs with ...
• Apr 27, 2015 ... And since then, we've seen massive turnover in the council ranks - first of all, the 2009 elections, even before the charter change, were the first in 30 years in which Detroiters elected a fully new majority. And change continued ...
• Among National League pitchers with at least 120 innings, Kershaw ranks first (of course) in xFIP. Greinke ranks third. Ryu ranks sixth. Perhaps it goes without saying that no other team in the National League can match that trio in this regard .
• Feb 25, 2015 ... The redesigned 2015 Ford Mustang currently ranks first of 11 affordable sports cars, which is an improvement over the 2014 model that topped out at fifth place when it was new. Here's how the changes for 2015 helped the ...