By Victor Kanayo
Table Tennis Star, Aruna Quadri of Nigeria and others will later on Wednesday begin battle for glory at the World Table Tennis (WTT) finals.
This followed the outcome of draws conducted by organisers of the competition in Doha, Qatar.
According to the fixtures, Quadri was handed tough opposition against Brazilian Hugo Calderano.
Quadri is not alien to Brazilian International as both players met in one of the tours in 2023.
Historic WTT Appearance
Quadri will be making his third appearance at the WTT Finals among the top 16 that are expected to compete at the event.
He remains the only African player to have featured in the WTT Finals having competed at the maiden edition in Singapore as well as the 2022 edition in China.
Quadri also holds the record of the best finish at the tournament by an African.
In his maiden outing, the Nigerian caused a major upset after beating world number eight Liang Jingkun of China 3-1 to reach the quarter-final where he lost to Brazil’s Hugo Calderano.
At the 2022 edition in China, he exited in the first round after losing 3-1 to world number eight Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yun-Ju.
The Nigerian veteran retained his men’s African singles title at the 2023 ITTF African Championships in Tunis, Tunisia last September defeating Ahmed Saleh of Egypt 4-0 (11-2, 12-10, 11-6, 11-6) in dominant style.
Other Players
Other players billed to feature at the tourney includes Zhendong (China), Wang Chuqin (China), Ma Long (China), Hugo Calderano (Brazil), Liang Jingkun (China), Lin Yun-Yu (Chinese Taipei), Felix Lebrun (France), Lin Gaoyuan (China), Jang Woojin (South Korea), Lin Shidong (China), Tomokazu Harimoto (Japan), Dimitrij Ovtcharov (Germany), Dang Qiu (Germany) and Darko Jorgic (Slovenia).
The two-day tournament which will hold from January 3 to 5, 2024, will see the winner receive the sum of $340,000 as prize money.