Nigeria’s sole flagbearer at the ITTF World Cup Macao 2024, Quadri Aruna has been drawn in Group 15 of the men’s singles as the Nigerian will slug it out against Portugal’s Marcos Freitas and Puerto Rico’s Daniel Gonzalez.

The 48 players have been drawn into 16 groups of three players in each group with the winner in each group advancing to the second stage of the competition.

 

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

 

Also, Egypt’s trio of Omar Assar, Ahmed Saleh and Mohamed El-Beiali have been drawn into group 16, 11 and nine respectively.

 

African Games champion Assar will slug it out against Sweden’s Truls Moregard and Iran’s Noshad Alamiyan.

 

Egyptian veteran Saleh has been handed a tough group 11 as he will battle former European champion Dan Qui of Germany and Japan’s Shunsuke Togami. El-Beiali who is debuting at the ITTF World will jostle for top spot against Korea’s Jang Woojin and France’s Simon Gauzy in group nine.

 

Also, three Egyptians and a Cameroonian will represent Africa in the women’s singles as Yousra Helmy, Hana Goda and Mariam Alhodaby will campaign in group nine, 12 and 11 while Cameroon’s Sarah Hanffou will compete in 11 alongside Korea’s Joo Cheonhui and Brazil’s Bruna Takahashi.

 

Credit: punchng.com