BY Victor Akhidenor
Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and Dina Meshref of Egypt have been seeded the top players in the men and women singles events of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour tagged Lagos Open.
Quadri, who is rated 32 in the world, is seeded number one while his arch-rival and defending champion Egypt’s Omar Assar is seeded number two while Assar’s compatriot, Mohammed El-Beiali is number three.
The absence of Segun Toriola may have paved the way for El-Beiali, who accounted for Quadri’s exit in the quarterfinal stage of the ITTF Africa Senior Championships, to be seeded number three in the tournament.
Also listed in the top-eight seeding of the men’s singles are Andre Silva of Portugal, Egypt’s Khalid Assar, Mawussi Agbetoglo of Togo and Nigeria’s duo of Boboye Oyeniyan and Ojo Onaolapo.
Last year’s runners-up and ITTF Africa Senior Championship winner, Meshref tops the women’s top four seeding list.
Funke Oshonaike and Edem Offiong of Nigeria are seeded two and three respectively while Russia’s Irina Ermakova is seeded fourth.
In the U-21 seeding, defending champion in the boys’ category, Nigeria’s Onaolapo is seeded number one. Other players listed in the top four seeding list are Egypt’s duo of Shady Magdy and Mahmoud Fathy as well as Olajide Omotayo of Nigeria.
Egypt dominated the girls’ U-21 seeding with 20-year-old Meshref on top of the seeding list. Her compatriots Fatma Alaa and Yousra Helmy also made the list while the only Nigerian in the top four seeding list is Funke Hassan.
Meanwhile, over 90 journalists drawn from newspapers, magazine, radio and television stations including two international media – SuperSport and Xinhua – have been accredited for the championship serving off on March 10 at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos, Nigeria.
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