Table tennis: Aruna hits top 10 in world ranking
Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna climbed to No. 10 in the latest world ranking released by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) on Tuesday.
Aruna became the first African and black player to break into the top 10 of the table tennis after consistent performance all through the season.
“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. It has included sensational headlines such as taking out China’s rising stars in succession at the 2022 WTT Star Contender in Doha and a quarterfinal appearance at the World Table Tennis Championships Finals. It looks like the 33-year-old is just getting started,” World Table Tennis said.
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.
However, Bode Abiodun gained 34 steps up to be rated 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.
The ITTF Executive Committee at the weekend approved the latest proposition formulated by the World Ranking Working Group.
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.
