Quadri Aruna Lands In Group 15 At 2024 ITTF World Cup

Nigerian table tennis icon, Quadri Aruna has found himself in a very tough group ahead of the 2024 ITTF World Cup in Macao, China.

Quadri Aruna is the only Nigerian table tennis player who will be at the prestigious men’s and women’s event from April 15th to 21st, 2024.

48 men’s table tennis players including Aruna will compete for the world title during the said period. The players have been placed in 16 groups containing three players each. A player must top a group before the player can move to the next round.

Quadri Aruna is in Group 15 of the men’s singles alongside Portugal’s Marcos Freitas and Puerto Rico’s Daniel Gonzalez.

The 35-year-old Nigerian table tennis icon is expected to begin his campaign against Portugal’s Freitas on Monday, April 15 while his last group match will be on Tuesday, April 16 against Puerto Rico’s Gonzalez.

Note that Aruna is a regular face at the ITTF World Cup and remains the first and only African to have reached the quarter-finals stage of the $1m prize money tournament.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s trio of Omar Assar, Ahmed Saleh, and Mohamed El-Beiali have been drawn into groups 16, 11, and 9 respectively.

Assar who is the reigning African Games champion is in Group 16 alongside Sweden’s Truls Moregard and Iran’s Noshad Alamiyan. Saleh is in Group 11 with former European champion Dan Qui of Germany and Japan’s Shunsuke Togami. El-Beiali will make his debut against Korea’s Jang Woojin and France’s Simon Gauzy in group nine.

In the women’s category, Egyptians have three representatives, Yousra Helmy, Hana Goda, and Mariam Alhodaby, while Cameroon has one representative, Sarah Hanffou.