Table Tennis star, Aruna Quadri is set to fly the flag of Nigeria at the World Table Tennis Final which takes place from January 3 to 5 in Doha, Qatar.
Aruna is the only African player to have featured in the tournament since the first edition in 2021.
He is expected to battle it out with the top 15 players in the world, including World number one, Fan Zhendong of China.
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Aruna’s best outing was in 2022 when he defeated the then World number six, Liang Jinkhun of China to make it to the last eight of the competition. He lost in the quarter final to Brazil’s Hugo Calderano.
In 2023, he defeated Tomokasu Harimoto for the first time in his career but he is yet to pass the quarter final stage in the competition.
He is expected to be in his best to end the poor record in Doha to stand a chance of making history against the world top 15 players.
He is currently the lowest ranked player in the 16th position with 1175 points and he will battle it out with the likes of Ma Long of China, Felix Le Brun, Wan Chuqin, Lin Yun-Ju, Lin Gaouyan, Lin Shidong and Jang Woojin.
The draws for the competition is billed to hold on Tuesday.
Aruna is the first African Table Tennis player to be ranked in the World top 10.
He currently plays his club tennis at TTC RhönSprudel Maberzell Fulda, a top club in the German Bundesliga Table Tennis.