The International Table Tennis Federation’s (ITTF) global rating for Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna improved on Monday as the new year got underway.
After finishing in the quarterfinals of the World Table Tennis (WTT) Finals, Aruna received points and moved up to the 14th spot in the most recent ITTF Ranking.
At the WTT Finals in Doha, 2023, the African champion pulled off one of the biggest upsets. This was following his comeback victory over Brazil’s Hugo Calderano, ranked fifth in the world, by a score of 3-2, which secured his spot in the quarterfinals of the year-ending competition hosted in Qatar.
Aruna, who came into the WTT Finals ranked 16th, earned 265 points for finishing in the quarterfinals in Doha.This improved his world rating points to 1,425, ahead of 15th-placed Darko Jorgic of Slovenia, who has 1,340 points.
Also, WTT has listed Aruna’s 2023 triumph over former world number five Tomokazu Harimoto among the five biggest upsets of the past year.
This was after the Nigerian stunned the Japanese 3-0 to reach the quarterfinal stage of the Singapore Smash in 2023.
“I am working hard this year so that I can achieve more success and continue to shoot up my ranking.
“This will enable me to secure my qualification to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games,” Aruna was quoted on the WTT website as saying.
Meanwhile, Aruna has been listed alongside Egypt’s Omar Assar among the top 20 players who will start their campaign in the main draw of the 2024 WTT Star Contender.
The tournament, which kicked off on Monday with the preliminary round, will end on Saturday at the Lusail Sports Arena in Doha, Qatar, with a prize money of 250,000 dollars.
