The two best players in Africa, Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and Omar Assar of Egypt will be leading the continent’s contingent to the first International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour in 2020 – German Open holding at GETEC Arena in Magdeburg beginning from today January 28 to February 2, 2020.
2019 ITTF Africa Cup Champion, Assar will lead a six-man Egyptian continent in the men’s singles.
Apart from Omar Assar, other Egyptian stars expected to be in action in Magdeburg are Assar’s sibling, Khalid as well as veteran Egyptian, Ahmed Saleh. Others are Mohamed Shouman, Karim Elhakem and Mahmoud Helmy.
Before now the Egyptian delegation has been in Germany warming up for the competition with technical input from one of their national coaches, Maged Ashour.
Having put the disappointment of missing out from the team event of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games behind them, Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and Olajide Omotayo will also be competing at German Open.
For Quadri, it promises to be a long route to the main draw as only the top 16 players in the world were listed in the seeding list while the Nigerian is rated 18th.
This development has prompted Quadri’s participation in the preliminary round which serves as a pathway to the main draw.
Two African female stars – Dina Meshref of Egypt and Cameroun’s Sarah Hanffou will also be in action in the women’s singles being part of their build-up to the 2020 Africa Top 16 Cup holding in Tunisia next month.
