Nigerian is now ranked 30 in the world

Nigeria’s Aruna  Quadri’s performance at the ITTF World
Team Championship in Malaysia yielded for the 2014
ITTF Star Player as the Nigerian is now ranked 30 in the
world ahead of his continental rival – Egypt’s Omar
Assar.

According to the March 2016 ranking released today by
the world table tennis ruling body, Quadri who was
ranked 37 in February garnered 58points from his
performance at the ITTF Top 16 Cup as well as ITTF
World Team Championship where he only lost to India’s
Sharath Achanta.

Again, Quadri has reclaimed his status as the highest
ranked African player in the world displacing Egypt’s
Omar Assar who dominated the continent throughout
2015.

The ranking was released at the end of the ITTF World
Team Championship with Egypt’s Assar who lost two
matches in Malaysia dropped to 36 from 33.
Also, Nigeria’s Segun Toriola who inspired the team in

Malaysia returned emphatically to the ranking to become
the third rated African player in the world. Toriola, who
will be attending his seventh Olympics in Rio, Brazil this
year is rated 116 in the world while Bode Abiodun who
has continued to rise in the ranking moved from 213 to
185 to become the sixth ranked African player behind
Egypt’s duo of El-Sayed Lashin and Mohammed El-Beiali,
who are both ranked 135 and 162 respectively.

This development has now put Nigeria ahead of Egypt in
terms of the men’s team event qualification for the
Olympic Games.

According to President, African Table Tennis Federation
(ATTF), Khaled El-Salhy, the May ranking of the three top
players in Nigeria and Egypt will decide the eventual
team that will qualify for the men’s team event of the
Rio Olympic Games.

“ITTF ranking in March might change the situation
slightly but it will not be the final as we should also
await the ranking list of April 2016 after the results of the
Kuwait Open & Qatar Open, then finally the ranking list of
May 2016 after the results of Poland Open.”