…Quadri Aruna down to 18th position

Nigeria’s table tennis sensation Taiwo Mati rose 13 places to No. 63 in the new world ranking released by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) on Tuesday.

In the latest ranking – released weekly – which was for week 27 of 2023, the 18-year-old garnered a total of 272 points to place the third best player in Africa.

The 18-year-old was previously ranked 76th in the week 26 ranking released last week.

Mati has featured in six tournaments this year, got to the quarter final of the ITTF-Africa Cup, Nairobi, Kenya, the Round of 32 of the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships, Durban, South Africa and the WTT Contender, Lagos. He was also in the Round of 64 of the WTT Feeder, Dusseldorf, Germany, the second qualifying round of the WTT Contender, Zagreb, Croatia and the first qualifying round of the Singapore Smash, Singapore.

Despite dropping one place to 18th in the World, Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna still remains the continent’s top-placed player ahead of Egypt’s Omar Assar who moved up one place to 22nd in the world.

Olajide Omotayo is the third best-ranked Nigerian player, moving up 18 places to No. 139 ahead of Amadi Omeh and Rilwan Akanbi in fourth and fifth respectively. Omeh, No. 164 in the world, moved up 28 places, while Akanbi had a leap of 32 places to place No. 259 in the world.

China’s Chuqin Wang, displaced countryman Zhendong Fan to become top-ranked player in the world, while Long Ma maintained the third position for a China 1, 2, 3.

In the women’s ranking, Nigeria’s No. 1 player, Fatimo Bello dropped 56 places to place 108th in the world, while Tosin Oribamise leaped 24 places to No. 147. Ajoke Ojomu also moved up 25 places to No. 191.

Longtime Nigeria No. 1 Offiong Edem slumped 137 places to place No. 283 in the world, while veteran Funke Oshonaike completed the top five Nigeria players, going down 222 places to be ranked 374th in the world.