The battle for Africa’s slots in the men and women team events of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games begins on Wednesday August 21 at the 12th African Games holding in Rabat, Morocco. 18 men’s teams and 12 women’s teams will battle for the continent’s sole slot in the men and women’s event of Tokyo 2020. The […]
via African Table Tennis Teams Battle For Tokyo 2020 Slots — finixsportsblog
Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and Egypt’s Dina Meshref emerged as singles champions at the 2018 ITTF African Championships concluded in Mauritius on Sunday September 9, 2018. Quadri did not drop a point from the first round (round of 64) until the final when he defeated Egypt’s Ahmed Saleh 4-1 to win his first African Championships title […]
From all indications, Egypt will cart home all the medals at stake in the doubles events after Dina Meshref and Ahmed Saleh defeated Nigeria’s Segun Toriola and Olufunke Oshonaike 4-0 to emerge as champions in the mixed doubles event of the 2018 ITTF African Championships holding in Mauritius. Also in the women and doubles event, […]
via Egypt Dominates Doubles Events At 2018 ITTF African Championships — finixsportsblog
Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and Egypt’s Dina Meshref have been seeded as top seeds as the singles event of the 2018 ITTF African Championships serves off on Friday September 7, 2018 in Mauritius. Action will return to the Beau Bassin Sports Complex after a one-day rest following the conclusion of the team event on Wednesday September […]
via Quadri, Meshref Are Top Seeds As Singles Serve Off Today — finixsportsblog
Aruna Quadri of Nigeria and Dina Meshref of Egypt will be defending their titles at this year’s ITTF Africa Top 16 Cup holding in Nairobi, Kenya. To win the tournament in 2016 in Khartoum, Sudan, Quadri defeated Omar Assar of Egypt 4-2 while Meshref also beat Edem Offiong of Nigeria and this year they will […]
via Quadri, Meshref To Defend Titles At ITTF Africa Top 16 Cup — newfanzoneblog
As the champion of Africa, Egypt (men and women) will fly the continent flag at the 2018 ITTF World Team Cup holding in London on February 22 to 25. Egypt qualification has been confirmed during the 2017 African Championships held in Morocco having emerged as champions in the men and women team events. Egypt’s men […]
via Egypt To Represent Africa at World Team Table Tennis Cup — newfanzoneblog
It was not a good day for African players competing in the women’s singles of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games as most of them were shown the exit in the first round of the competition. In the preliminary it was continental affair between Egypt’s Dina Meshref and Tunisia’s Safa Saidani but it was African champion […]
via African Women Exit Table Tennis Singles Event at Rio 2016 Olympics — newfanzoneblog
Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and Egypt’s Dina Meshref will represent Africa at the 2016 ITTF World Cups after the duo emerged champions at the ITTF Africa Top 16 Cup in Khartoum, Sudan.
To become the new continental champion, Aruna Quadri avenged the defeats he suffered in the hands of Egypt’s Omar Assar in 2015 when he walloped the Egyptian 4-1 to lift the trophy while Dina Meshref who has been training in Singapore in the last three months defeated Congo Brazzaville’s Han Xing by same margin to be victorious in the women’s event.
Just like it happened in 2014 in Lagos when Quadri and Meshref claimed the titles, it occurred again in Sudan as both became the new champions of Africa.
With this win, Quadri will return to Germany where he had his resurgence in 2014 when the 2016 edition of the ITTF World Cup held. For the women’s event, Meshref will want to amend her first round exit at the 2015 edition of the World Cup when this year’s event holds in a yet to be decided venue.
For the third time, Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri will be representing Africa at the ITTF World Cup after the 2014 ITTF Star Player defeated his arch-rival, Egypt’s Omar Assar 4-1 to win the 2016 ITTF Africa Top 16 Cup in Sudan.
Quadri who has been playing second fiddle to the Egyptian in their four last meetings was in fine form in the final of the men’s singles with a 11-8, 8-11, 7-11, 6-11, 9-11 victory over the North African. This win will make it the third time Quadri will be participating in the ITTF World Cup. His maiden outing was in 2009 in Russia while the second was in 2014 at Dusseldorf, Germany he stunned the world with his performance which shot him to the top 30 in the world.
The win over Assar will surely rub off on the world ranking of Quadri who is presently rated 37 while Assar is rated 32.
2014 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Star Player, Aruna Quadri and six-time Olympian, Segun Toriola as well as Olufunke Oshonaike and Edem Offiong have been confirmed as Nigeria’s representatives at next month’s ITTF Africa Top 16 Cup holding in Khartoum, Sudan.
In the list of qualified released by the Africa Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), Quadri who won the tournament in 2014 in Lagos will battle for the title against his rival, Egypt’s Omar Assar who has remained a threat to the Nigerian dominating the continent.
The tournament scheduled to hold on February 14 to 15 has the top 15 players on the continent including a player from the host country to complete the top 16.
Toriola will join Quadri to compete for the laurel in the men’s event while Oshonaike who has already secured a place at this year’s Rio Olympic Games in Brazil will be joined in the women’s event by Edem Offiong who is at present plying her trade in the Portuguese elite league.
Having claimed three titles in 2015, the Egyptian duo of Omar Assar and Dina Meshref top the list of invitees for the two-day tournament to be staged at the International Conference Centre in Khartoum, the capital city of Sudan.
Winners in the men and women events will represent the continent at the 2016 World Cups.
The list of players are;
Men: Omar Assar (Egypt), Quadri Aruna (Nigeria), El-Sayed Lashin (Egypt), Saheed Idowu (Congo Brazzaville), Segun Toriola (Nigeria), Idir Khourta (Algeria), Suraju Saka (Congo Brazzaville), Olouwachehoun Guiganfode (Benin), Mawussi Agbetoglo (Togo), Sofiène Boudjadja (Algeria), Adem Hamam (Tunisia), Fessou Lawson-Gaizer (Togo), Alain Patrick Jague Niken Jiotsa (Cameroon), Derek Abrefa (Ghana), Emmanuel Ngwe Nikeng (Cameroon)
Women: Dina Meshref (Egypt), Nadeen El-Dawlatly (Egypt), Han Xing (Congo Brazzaville), Olufunke Oshonaike (Nigeria), Offiong Edem (Nigeria), Sara Hanffou (Cameroon), Islem Laid (Algeria), Lynda Loghraibi (Algeria), Zodwa Maphanga (South Africa), Amma Liobaka (Democratic Republic of Congo), Onyinyechi Nwachukwu (Congo Brazzaville), Cynthia Kwabi (Ghana), Harriet Ntumnyuy (Cameroon), Celia baah-Danso (Ghana), Isabel Albino (Angola).
With the end of the 2015 Tennis season, we at Newfanzone.com take a look at what happened during the course of the year in Nigeria, and also at the ATP and WTA levels.
NIGERIA
Unlike the amazing year we had in 2014 when it comes to Table Tennis, this year performance from our athletes was a bit below expectation.
In the Month of March, we had the ITTF World Tour (Lagos Open) at the Molade Okoya Thomas Hall where big names on the Continent such as Omar Assar, Dina Meshref, Aruna Quadri, Ojo Onaolapo, Funke Oshonaike, Shagdy Magdy, Offiong Edem, and also Portuguese Stars such as Jieni Shao, Andre & Diogo Silva participated in the tournament. It was quite a poor outing for team Nigeria, where our only win came from the Men’s double final courtesy Aruna Quadri and Makanjuola Kazeem. The Lagos Open also showed that the future of Nigeria Table Tennis is promising if our administrators manage the crop of young players in the ranks such as Hassan Nurudeen, Muibat Bello & Ayobami Animashaun.
The All African games also showed that apart from Egypt, Congo has also grown as a real threat and are ready to challenge Nigeria come 2016 when it comes to playing tennis on the table with the likes of Wang Jinan, Yuheng Li & Han Xing.
Team Nigeria had a fairly good showing at the AAG, winning the men’s team event and other medals.
In Lawn tennis, we saw the return of the Governor’s cup in which 38 countries participated in. The farthest Nigeria could go in the competition was the Quarter-Finals where Chris Paul fell at the hands of South-African Lloyd Harris 6-1,6-0. The competition which took place at the Lagos lawn tennis club in Onikan was won by Antal Van Der Dium ( Male) and Conny Perrin (Female). The final also witnessed the presence of the Minister of Youths and Sports Barrister Solomon Dalong and the Governor of Lagos State Akinwunmi Ambode.
There were a few Positives to take home this year from Nigerian Tennis (especially Table Tennis) and with the necessary funds hopefully we would have a better 2016 when it comes to playing tennis either on the Table, Grass, Clay or Hard court.
The WTA Season
The WTA season this year was quite one sided as the big players were not good enough to stop Serena Williams from winning 3 Grand Slam titles (Australian Open, Roland Garros & Wimbledon). The American lost 3 games out of 53 which further proves how consistent she has been throughout this year.
World No.2 Simona Halep was disappointing this season winning just 3 WTA titles. Halep could not even take her opportunity when Serena was beaten at the US Open and her absence during the season ending WTA finals as she was beaten by Flavia Pennetta and Agnieszka Radwanska respectively. Maybe Halep needs to change her Coach in Darren Cahill as she seem not to be getting it when it comes to the Slams.
Spaniard Garbine Muguruza has had a wonderful 2015 and she would hope she takes this sort of form next year especially during the Slams.
The 22 year old had a blissful campaign this season as she ended the year as world No.3 (Youngest Player in the top 10) behind “Miss Consistent” Serena Williams and Simona Halep.
Muguruza has emerged top pick to represent Spain in the forthcoming Olympics and she would also team up with Carla Suarez Navarro and Rafael Nadal in the doubles.
Sharapova would need to be fit if she wants to have a go at any Grand Slam title this year. The former French Open Champion is still a winner any day, but she needs to be consistent and hope to be injury free come next season.
Top Performers
Serena Williams
Flavia Pennetta
Garbine Muguruza
Agnieszka Radwanska
Venus Williams
FLOPS
Simona Halep
Maria Sharapova
Petra Kvitova
Caroline Wozniacki
Player To Watch Next Season
Garbine Muguruza – The young Spaniard was very fantastic last season as she got to the final of Wimbledon which she lost to Serena Williams. Muguruza won WTA Singles title in this past season, and certainly the 22 year old would be eyeing a Grand Slam title come next season. With the epileptic form of her compatriots,apart from Serena,trust Muguruza to go all the way come next season.
The ATP Season
Novak ruled the Men tennis in this outgoing season with fantastic displays winning three Grand Slam titles in the process, finishing the year as No.1 and ranked 5th for the all time weeks at world No.1 moving past Rafael Nadal and John McEnroe in the process.
The Serb knows how to turn up in the Slams and how to defeat the big boys when it matters most. One sad thing on Novak’s mind this season would be his loss on clay to Swiss, Stanislas Wawrinka after he had defeated “The Master Of Clay” Rafael Nadal in the Semis. Novak would no doubt put in much effort to see if he could win that much coveted Roland Garros title come next season.
British No.1 Andy Murray, had had a fairly good season ending the year as the 2nd best player in the world. Murray who helped Britain win the Davis cup title after many years would have his sights at the Olympics in Rio come next season. Andy kept his manager Amelie Mauresmo at the end of this season which shows that he was satisfied with the level of performance he showed this season. Barring any injuries,Andy would give Novak a fight come next season.
Roger Federer also had a decent season, though the Swiss would still want to win a Grand Slam title. It would be very difficult for Federer come next season with the form of the two players ahead of him in the rankings. On his day, the Swiss Master who became the 3rd player in the Open era to win 1000 Grand Slam titles, would defeat any player that come up against him.
Rafael Nadal would hope to forget this past season as injuries hampered him from competing at his peak. The Spaniard would sure look forward to his favorite surface (Clay) as a great chance to win yet another Grand Slam title come next year.
Top Performers
Novak Djokovic
Andy Murray
Roger Federer
Stanislas Wawrinka
Kevin Anderson
Flops
Rafael Nadal
Kei Nishikori
David Ferrer
Jo Wilfred Tsonga.
Player To Watch Next Season
Stanislas Wawrinka – The Swiss international just has a way of doing his business quietly and getting results. Wawrinka won Roland Garros this year and has been consistent all year long making the Semis of Grand Slam tournaments and also winning ATP titles. He would definitely be a dark horse next year in any Grand Slam competition and trust the Swiss not to disappoint.
The tennis has been fantastic this season from the local athletes to their foreign compatriots and we at Newfanzone.com believes 2016 would be a much better year where new discoveries would be made especially when it comes to Nigeria.
Ademola Adejuwo
The African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF) today released the final ranking for African table tennis players for the year 2015, as usual the list is dominated by Egyptian table tennis players both male and female.
The Egyptian domination is testament to the great work the Egyptian Federation as put in to the development of the game locally, Omar Assar and Dina Meshref both top the male and female top twenty rankings after winning most of the table tennis events on the African Continent.
Omar and Meshref also represented Africa at the world championships in 2015. Former ITTF Star of the year Award winner Aruna Quadri is placed second on the ATTF top twenty followed by another Egyptian Lanshin El-Saheed.
There are 9 Egyptians in the men’s top 20 ranking, 6 Nigerians players including the Veteran Segun Toriola, Congo have got 3 players in the top 20 while one player each from Algeria and Benin Republic make up the top 20 Table Tennis players on the African continent.
The African Women’s top twenty rankings is also dominated by Egypt with 13 players followed by Nigeria and Algeria with 3 players and each while Congo and Cameroon have both got 1 player each in the top twenty.
Last ITTF 205 Ranking
African Table Tennis Federation
1 ASSAR Omar – EGY 252
2 ARUNA Quadri – NGR 227
3 LASHIN El-Sayed – EGY 188
4 SALEH Ahmed Ali – EGY 158
5 EL-BEIALI Mohamed – EGY 156
6 ASSAR Khalid – EGY 143
7 IDOWU Saheed – CGO 129
8 TORIOLA Segun – NGR 110
9 WANG Jianan – CGO 89
10 ONAOLAPO Ojo – NGR 85
11 KHURTA Idir – ALG 84
12 KAZEEM Makanjuola – NGR 60
13 ASHRAF Ahmed – EGY 60
14 SAKA Suraju – CGO 59
15 AJETUNMOBI Seun – NGR 42
16 ABIODUN Bode – NGR 40
17 GUIGANFODE Olouwachehoun – BEN 40
18 BEDAIR Omar – EGY 40
19 MAGDY Shady – EGY 40
20 NADIM Ahmed – EGY 40
1 MESHREF Dina – EGY 256
2 EL-DAWLATLY Nadeen- EGY 228
3 HAN Xing – CGO 204
4 OSHONAIKE Olufunke – NGR 189
5 EDEM Offiong – NGR 157
6 HANFFOU Sarah – CMR 130
7 HELMY Yousra – EGY 107
8 ABDEL-AZIZ Farah – EGY 100
9 AKPAN (OFFIONG) Cecilia – NGR 74
10 ALAA Fatma – EGY 60
11 NASSER Galila – EGY 60
12 YOUSRY Noha – EGY 60
13 YOUSRY Amira – EGY 58
14 LAID Islem – ALG 57
15 LOGHRAIBI Lynda – ALG 54
16 EL-ERAKY Reem – EGY 40
17 HASSAN Sara – EGY 40
18 KHALED Salma – EGY 40
19 SHOUMAN Fagr – EGY 40
20 LAGSIR Sannah – ALG 39
With much efforts and a lot of tactical discipline, Egypt defeated Nigeria to retain the women’s team title at the 2015 African Games.
It was two wins from Dina Meshref and a win from Nadeen El-Dawlatly that salvaged the victory for Egypt in an epic final.
Also, veteran Segun Toriola turned back the clock when he recorded an emphatic victory over Mohamed El-Beiali and Omar Assar to help Nigeria reclaim the men’s team throne ahead of the North Africans. Since the tournament began, Toriola remained unbeaten with this needed victory for Nigeria.
“This is not the first time I will be playing the deciding match but my coach told me to concentrate. But I must say it was more difficult for me in the match. I remained focus and I am happy that I won the match for my country. I feel good winning the title again and I am now strong mentally,” said elated EL-DAWLATLY Nadeen.
Meshref Dina added: “I am very proud that we won the title this year because looking at the roll of honours, Nigeria has won the African Games title more than any country in Africa. So I am very happy that we were able to retain the title we won four years ago in Mozambique. This goes to show the Egypt is improving and our generation has really worked hard for this success.”
On the victory over Egypt, Toriola said: “I think the competition just started with this victory because we still have five medals to fight four. But prior to the match I told my teammates that we should have confidence even when we were down 2-1. I knew that if I had to beat Omar Assar I need to be confident and not to play with any caution. If I am too conscious I will make mistakes against Omar. I think it was the confidence in the team that gave us the victory.”
For the 2014 ITTF Star Player, Aruna Quadri, it was a sweet victory. “In our last meeting he defeated me but I could remember that I had also beaten him twice. But today I found an answer to him because we play the same style and he believes my style suits him. I am so grateful to God that I was able to find an answer to Mohammed El-Beiali tonight. This is a big victory for our country after our women’s team narrowly lost to Egypt earlier,” Quadri said.
newfanzone 