“Quadri qualified based on his status as 2018 Africa Cup second place (after taking the July World Ranking, WR in consideration),” Sim said.
Africa’s top seed, Aruna Quadri, was yesterday given a wide card by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) to be part of this year’s ITTF Men World Cup slated to hold in Paris, France between October 19 and 21.
Quadri, ranked 20th in the world, lost the sole ticket to the World Cup to 21st seed, Egypt’s Omar Assar, earlier in the year at the Top 16 Africa Cup in Kenya.
According to an invitation signed by the Head of World Cup and ITTF Challenge, Zena Sim, the nation’s top seed at the Nigeria Open’s eligibility for the tournament was based on July ITTF ranking, which allows 19 other top players for the championship.
“On behalf of the ITTF, we would like to invite Quadri Aruna to participate in the Liebherr 2018 Men’s World Cup in Paris from October 19 to 21.
“Quadri qualified based on his status as 2018 Africa Cup second place (after taking the July World Ranking, WR in consideration),” Sim said.
Speaking on the new development, Quadri said his qualification was due to hard work.
“Despite losing the ITTF Africa Top 16 Cup in Kenya to Assar, I did not rest on my oars because I knew I stood a chance of gaining qualification through the ITTF ranking system.
“I will attribute this development to my qualification to the round of 32 inQatar and Germany and also some significant victories at other championships.
“I feel very happy and I am excited that I finally made it to the World Cup in France,” Quadri stated.
Also listed for the Men’s World Cup are Egypt’s Omar Assar as well as China’s duo of Ma Long and Fan Zhendong; Brazil’s Hugo Calderano and Gustavo Tsuboi; Germany’s Timo Boll and Dimitrij Ovtcharov.
Others include South Korea’s LEE Sangsu and JEONG Sangeun; France’s Simon Gauzy and LEBESSON Emmanuel; Japan’s Niwa Koki and HARIMOTO Tomokazu; Sweden’s KARLSSON Mattias, Belarus’ Vladimir Samsonov; Hong Kong’s WONG Chun Ting; Denmark’s Jonathan Groth; United States’ Khanak Jha and Australia’s HU Heming.
