Africa’s highest-ranked players Quadri Aruna of Nigeria and Omar Assar of Egypt are among the top stars lined up for the first World Table Tennis (WTT) Contender Series event in 2022 tagged at WTT Contender Muscat, which kicked off at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex, Oman at the weekend.
Aruna alongside Frenchman Simon Gauzy and China’s Wang Chuqin were added to the list of stars in Oman by the organisers.
Aruna, the number three seed in the Men’s singles and seventh seed Assar will both start their campaigns from the main draw which gets underway tomorrow with Aruna already drawn in the first round against Belgium’s Cedric Nuytinck.
Assar and Senegal’s Ibrahima Diaw are expected to be drawn against qualifiers from the preliminary round while Egypt’s Ahmed Saleh will take on Portugal’s Joao Monteiro in the first round as well.
Also, World number five and tournament top seed China’s Liang Jingkun leads the way in the Men’s Singles as the highest-ranked player in the field. He will be seeking to maintain his perfect record at WTT Contender events, having won back-to-back titles in Slovenia last year.
Joining Liang in the title race are Aruna, Gauzy and Chuqin, all three are expected to challenge for top honours at the season opener, along with the rest of the strong field who will have their eyes cast on their positions in the world ranking.
Aruna, ranked 11th in the world, took the spot of Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yun-Ju following the silent assassin’s withdrawal.
A good result in Muscat will provide players with valuable ranking points with one eye on the lucrative Singapore Smash 2022, scheduled for next week after WTT Contender Muscat.
The WTT Contender Muscat offers a total prize purse of $75,000 shared equally between both genders. The champions of each competition will walk away with 400 ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking Points across men’s and women’s singles and doubles and mixed doubles competitions.