Less than two months after surrendering the top spot in the continental ranking, Quadri Aruna has reclaimed his place after leaping to 17th place in the latest ITTF rankings released on Tuesday by the world table tennis ruling body.
Aruna, who recently reclaimed the ITTF Africa Cup in Rwanda earlier this month, rose by two steps up the ranking ladder to become the highest rated African in the world.
Egypt’s Omar Assar who toppled Aruna in the last rankings dropped to 22 in the world after occupying the top spot in Africa in the last two months following his triumph at the last African Games in Ghana.
Assar’s drop in the world ranking was due to the expiration of the quarter-finals points he garnered at the Durban 2023 World Championships in South Africa and that automatically made him lose some points that prompted his fall in the ranking.
Africa’s biggest movers in May include Egypt’s Mohamed El-Beiali, who became the third-best-ranked player on the continent and 49th in the world after finishing as runners-up at the 2024 ITTF Africa Cup. He lost 4-0 loss to Aruna in Kigali.
Despite dropping by a step, Egypt’s Dina Meshref held on to the top echelon of Africa as the 24th-best player in the world.
Meshref’s compatriot, Hana Goda, remained static as 31st ranked in the world.
Following the conclusion of all continental quotas for the Olympic Games, players are now eager to pick up their tickets to Paris through the world ranking, which will be in force on June 11 as ITTF concludes the list of participants at the 2024 Olympic Games in France. (Punch)