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Tag: Egypt’s Omar Assar

Quadri ends 2017 at 21 in latest ITTF ranking

Aruna Quadri set a new personal record for Nigeria and himself as the Nigerian is now ranked 21 in the end-of-the-year ITTF ranking released on Thursday December 7 by the world table tennis ruling body.

Quadri now dwarfed his best of 25^th in the ranking to displace Egypt’s Omar Assar as the continent’s best ranked player in the world.

Despite not matching up the record set by Egypt’s Omar Assar as the first African ranked among top 20 in the world, Quadri ends the year as the highest ranked African in the latest rating.

Following her victories over top ranked players at the Swedish Open, Quadri amassed 50 points to improve from 2457 to 2507points to be rated 21 in the world ranking.

Prior to this latest ranking, the best achieved by Quadri in the world rating was 25 and with this, he has set a new record for Nigeria and himself.

However, the inactiveness of Omar Assar may have affected his rating, as the Egyptian dropped from 20 to 26 in the latest ranking.

For the President of Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), Ishaku Tikon, the feat is commendable as Quadri continues to put Nigeria and Africa on the world map with his scintillating performance at global stage. “We are excited about this latest ranking and this goes to show that our efforts are paying off and what we just need to do is to ensure we unearth and nurture more players like Quadri. Also the young players should take a cue from Quadri in terms of his diligent, professionalism and dedication to the trade. I hope and believe they can follow his footsteps in their career to make it to the top,” the NTTF boss said.

In the women’s ranking, Egypt’s Dina Meshref dropped to 110 from 92 but she still remains Africa’s best ranked female player in the world while Nigeria’s Olufunke Oshonaike inactiveness at global level continues to rub off positively on her world ranking as she dropped from 227 to 262 in the latest rating.

December 7, 2017
2017 ITTF World Cup: Quadri, Assar breeze into second round

Africa’s flagbeaerers at the 2017 ITTF World Cup, Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and Egypt’s Omar Assar yesterday cruised to the second round of the prestigious tournament holding in Liege, Belgium.

Despite losing one of their group matches, Quadri and Assar will now compete against the eight top seeded players in the second round (last 16) of the $150,000 prize money tournament.

Quadri narrowly lost his first group match to Korea’s Lee Sangsu 4-3 despite leading 3-1, but the Polish Open champion restored his pride by working hard to beat American teenager – Kanak Jhan 4-2 to secure of the eight slots available in the first round.

Egypt’s Assar however started his campaign in Group C on a good note with a hard-fought 4-3 win over Belgium’s Cedric Nuytinck. Having gone down 3-1 against the homeboy, Assar recovered to beat the Belgian 4-3.

But in the second group match, Assar by whisker lost to Russia’s Alexander Shibaev 4-3 to finish second in the group. He however advanced to the second round of the competition.

With the qualification for the knockout stage, Quadri has erased the memory of his first round exit in 2016.

The Nigerian put up a good fight against the Korean but few errors in the final game may have caused his loss to the Asian star.

And against the young American, Quadri did not really start well but he raised his game when it mattered most to end the dream of the American at 4-2 (7-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-5).

Today, the knockout stage begins as the eight seeded players will enter the ring in their bid to clinch the $45,000 star prize for the eventual winner.

World and Olympic Champion, China’s Ma Long and former world number one, Germany’s Timo Boll will start their race for the another World Cup title in Belgium.

October 21, 2017
Quadri, Assar get opponents for ITTF World Cup

Africa’s representatives at the 2017 ITTF World Cup, Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and Egypt’s Omar Assar will today know their group opponents in the $150,000 prize money.

The draw for the three-day tournament holds today at the Country Hall in Liège ahead of the kick off tomorrow.

Quadri is seeded 14while Assar is listed 11^th on the seeding list. There are possibilities that Quadri and Assar may be drawn in same group based on the format of tournament.

Being the first time Africa will be presenting two players for the competition, Quadri and Assar will be hoping to set new records at the tournament as Quadri remains the only African to have played in the quarterfinal of the 38-year-old tournament.

Among the 20 players that will contest at the World Cup comprise the current World Champion, while 17 players qualified through their respective Continental Cups. The remaining two players include host and a wildcard entry.

According to the format of the World Cup, the tournament consists of two stages. In the first stage, the players seeded nine to 20 (12 players) are drawn into four equal groups of three players, with all members of a group playing each other.

Players seeded 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th head each group A, B, C and D respectively, while players seeded 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th are drawn randomly into the second position of each preliminary group. The remaining players seeded 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th are drawn randomly into the third and last position in each preliminary group.

The top two finishers of each preliminary group shall join the top eight seeded players in the second stage of the competition. The stage two is on knockout basis.

The 2017 World Cup is the 38th edition and is the 4th edition that Belgium will host the championships while the oldest competitor is Germany’s Timo Boll, who is 36 years old. The youngest is United States’ Kanak Jha, who is 17, a difference of 19 years and there are no defensive or penhold players in this year’s edition of the championship.

October 18, 2017
ITTF Ranking: Aruna Quadri ends 2016 on 25th spot

Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri maintained his status for three consecutive months as world number 25 in the December ITTF World Ranking released yesterday by the world table tennis ruling body.
With just one point, Quadri garnered in his second exit at the Austrian Open, the 2014 ITTF Star Player now has 2446 from 2445 he had in November 2016.
With this, he ends 2016 as the highest ranked African player in the world, while his continental rival – Egypt’s Omar Assar moved four steps up the ranking ladder, as the ITTF African Senior Championships winner is now rated 45th from 49th in November.
Seven-time Olympian, Segun Toriola remains the third best African despite dropping from 101 to 106 in the latest ranking.
Bode Abiodun also dropped from 175 to 196 in the November ranking to become the fifth best African player in the world.
In the women ranking, African champion, Olufunke Oshonaike may have dropped to 209 from 206 in the world, but she held on as the third best ranked female African player in the world as Egypt’s Dina Meshref and Nadeen El-Dawlatly held onto the top two spots in the continent despite sliding in the latest ranking.
Meanwhile, China’s Ma Long and Ning Ding held on as the best players in the men and women ranking. Despite their inactiveness in the last two months, Long and Ding remain the highest rated players in the world. The top three spots in the men and women ranking are still being dominated by the Chinese.

December 1, 2016
ITTF pledges support to Nigeria, others
- As tournament ends
With the progressed made by Nigeria and others in Africa, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has pledged its support to the continent just as the 2016 ITTF African Junior & Cadet Championship ends today in Algiers.

Impressed with the giant strides made by Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and Egypt’s Omar Assar, ITTF President, Thomas Weikert that the performance of the stars has motivated the world table tennis ruling body to look towards Africa and see ways to assist them in developing the sport.

The ITTF boss told NationSport during an exclusive interview at the weekend that Nigeria and Egypt have become what Germany and China are to the world table tennis in terms of their quality and efforts by their national associations at improving the fortune of the sport.

“I must tell you that I am familiar with Nigerian players having played alongside the likes of Sunday Eboh, Thomas Ogunrinde and Titus Omotara as well as Olawunmi Majekodunmi, I knew their quality and with what Aruna Quadri is doing now, it shows that the national association is not relenting in its efforts to groom new players. Also Egypt is like the China of Africa with what they have achieved at the global level.

“I think they just need to support other countries in the continent just like China is doing at global level. At ITTF we will continue to support Africa to grow the game as well as to engage more women in the development of the sport. As Nigeria and Egypt are the best playing nations in Africa, they must not look down on other nations but see how they can support them and that is where ITTF will not come in to aid the support,” Weikert said.

The ITTF helmsman who watched the cadet boys final involving Nigeria and Egypt in Algiers believes with the quality of the youngsters, the future of the game in Africa is secured, while calling on other African nations to take a cue from Nigeria and Egypt.

Meanwhile, the seven-day championship in Algiers will climax today with the finals of the singles event in U-21, junior and cadet categories.
April 11, 2016