Listed among the 32 top seeds in the men’s singles, Quadri Aruna will begin his quest for another historic performance at the Durban 2023 World Table Tennis Championships (WTTC) as the African top-ranked star has been handed a tricky tie against Romania’s Ovidiu Ionescu.
Also, Nigeria’s trio of Taiwo Mati, Bode Abiodun, and Olajide Omotayo have been handed tough opponents in the first round of the men’s singles as the first World Championships in Africa in the last 84 years begin today at the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Durban.
Number 12 seed Aruna will face the clever Romanian who is the men’s doubles vice-champion in 2019 in what could be described as a repeat of their meeting in the German Bundesliga last season with the Nigerian escaping with a scrappy win over the European star.
Ionescu might be ranked in the top 100 in the world, but he is indeed a force to be reckoned with having humbled some of the world’s finest players at big stages like the WTTC.
It promises to be strength-for-strength for Aruna and the Romanian in their quest to advance to the second round.
Nigeria’s second-best ranked player Mati will be making his debut in the tournament, but he has been pitched against an experienced Czech Republic’s Lubomir Jancarik, while Abiodun who is making a return after the 2022 Commonwealth Games will face German defender Ruwen Filus. Omotayo also has an uphill task when he takes on England’s Paul Drinkhall.
Unlike the men’s team, the women’s singles have given the country hope of second spot as Fatimo Bello has an easy opponent in Vanuatu’s Liopa Santhy, while Offiong Edem will face 75th ranked Hong Kong star Zhu Chengzhu, while Olufunke Oshonaike will slug it out against France’s Charlotte Lutz in the first-round matches.