Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna has become the first African and black player to be ranked in the top 10 in world table tennis ranking.
According to “2022 ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking – Week 18”; made available on Tuesday May 3, 2022, the number one player in Africa is now ranked 10th in the world.
In a statement released by the World Table Tennis (WTT), it has been a long time coming as the King of Africa has finally made it into the Top 10 in the world.
“Aruna has truly been mister consistent in both his performances and his participation. The Nigerian has spent the last year notching up a string of finishes inside the top eight, while being one of the most active players on the WTT scene,” the statement partly read.
“It has included sensational headlines such as taking out China’s rising stars in succession at the 2022 WTT Star Contender Doha and a quarterfinal appearance at the World Table Tennis Championships Finals. It looks like the 33-year-old is just getting started.”
Also, Egypt’s Omar Assar returned to the top 18 in the world ranking after the African champion gained eight steps up in the rating to occupy 18th place in the Men’s singles ranking.
Unlike Aruna and Assar, the trio of Ahmed Saleh of Egypt, Ibrahima Diaw of Senegal and Nigeria’s Olajide Omotayo dropped from the ranking order. Saleh dropped nine steps down to 58th, Diaw slid to 61st while Omotayo dropped by 10 steps to be ranked 99th.
Another Nigerian player, Bode Abiodun, gained 34 steps up to climb to 97th in the world.
In the women’s ranking, Egypt’s Mariam Alhodaby has become the highest ranked African female player as the 2021 African champion rose to 40th in the latest ranking while teenage sensation Hana Goda gained 132 steps up to be ranked 42nd in the world and displaced compatriot – Dina Meshref who dropped to 46th in the ranking.
Egypt’s Yousra Helmy gained 14 steps up to occupy 67th place while Nigeria’s Offiong Edem gained 10 steps to be ranked 89th.
In a related development, the ITTF Executive Committee at the weekend approved the latest proposition formulated by the World Ranking Working Group (WRWG). Basically, the ITTF Table Tennis Ranking of a player is composed of the sum of the points of the best eight results achieved in the last 12 months. An objective merit-based method, it is used for entries and seeding at ITTF and WTT events.
