Professional Nigerian table tennis player, Quadri Aruna has reclaimed his place after moving to 17th place in the latest ITTF rankings released on Tuesday by the world table tennis ruling body.
This development comes less than two months after the first African player to be ranked top 10 in the world surrendered the top spot in the continental ranking.
Aruna reclaimed the ITTF Africa Cup in Rwanda earlier this month and rose by two steps up the ranking ladder to become the highest rated African in the world.
Following his triumph at the last African Games in Ghana, Egypt’s Omar Assar who toppled Aruna in the last rankings dropped to 22 in the world after occupying the top spot in Africa in the last two months.
On the reasons he loosed some points that prompted his fall in the ranking, Assar dropped in the world ranking due to the expiration of the quarter-finals points he garnered at the Durban 2023 World Championships in South Africa.
On the continent, Africa’s biggest movers in May include Egypt’s Mohamed El-Beiali who lost 4-0 to Aruna in Kigali.
He emerged the third-best-ranked player on the continent and 49th in the world after finishing as runners-up at the 2024 ITTF Africa Cup.
Egypt’s Dina Meshref who dropped by a step, held on to the top echelon of Africa as the 24th-best player in the world while Meshref’s compatriot, Hana Goda, remained static as 31st ranked in the world.
Players are now eager to pick up their tickets to Paris through the world ranking, as all continental quotas for the Olympic Games, comes into conclusion.
This will be in force on June 11 while ITTF concludes the list of participants at the 2024 Olympic Games in France.
