ITTF WORLD TOUR (LAGOS OPEN) DAY 4

Winner International Table Tennis Federation, ITTF World Tour, Lagos Open, Men’s Under21 Shagdy Magdy of Egypt

The Round of 16, Quarter Finals and Semi-finals of games (Singles & Doubles) went down today at the Dr.Molade Okoya Thomas Hall of the Teslim Balogun Stadium.

There were lots exciting moments to savour as Table Tennis supporters from far and wide came to watch the best players in Africa and in the world do their thing.

Nigerian Athletes have proven their worth as Ojo Onaolapo, Aruna Quadri, Funke Oshonaike and Edem Effiong have all made it to the semi-finals in the singles event.

The future also look good for Nigeria as far as table tennis is concerned as we saw a scintillating performance from Hassan Nurudeen who seems to be getting better as the day goes by and who might end up winning the U-21 title next year.

Dina Meshref at the International Table Tennis Federation, ITTF World Tour, Lagos Open, Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos, Togo

The Foreign players have also put up fine displays in this tournament like Jieni Shao, Dina Meshref, Andre Silva, El-Belaili Mohammed.

DAY 4

RESULTS(Doubles)

MEN

QUARTER FINAL

* A.Silva & D.Siva def A.Ogunalade & O.Omotayo (3-1)

* K.Assar & O. Assar def O.Guinganfode & M.Olabiyi (3-0)

* El-Beiali & S.Magdy def M.Fathy & A.Mabrouk (3-0)

* Q.Aruna & M.Kazeem def O.Onaolaopo & B.Oyeniyan (3-1)

SEMI-FINAL

* A.Silva & D.Silva def K.Assar & O.Assar (3-1)

* Q. Aruna & M.Kazeem def El-Beiali & S.Magdy (3-2)

WOMEN

QUARTER FINAL

*D.Meshref & J.Shao def F.Ajala & N.Aroyehun (3-1)

*G.Nasser & Y.Helmy def R.Oguindele & E.Oribamise (3-0)

*C.Akpan & O.Edem def F.Abdel-Aziz & F.Alaa(3-0)

*O.Atinuke & I.Ermakova def F.Bello & A.Odusanya (3-1)

SEMI- FINAL

* D.Meshref & J.Shao def G.Nasser & Y.Helmy (3-2)

* C.Akpan & O.Edem def O.Atinuke & I.Ermakova (3-2)

SINGLES

Round of 16

MEN

* El-Beiali def N.Hassan (4-2)

* O.Onaolapo def M.Babatunde (4-1)

*M.Kazeem def O.Olaniyi (4-2)

* Q.Haruna def H.Adeyinka (4-0)

* A.Silva def A.Fagbamila (4-0)

* K.Assar def D.Silva (4-3)

* B.Oyeniyan def S.Ramadan (4-2)

* O.Assar def M.Fathy (4-0)

International Table Tennis Federation, ITTF World Tour, Lagos Open, Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos, Togo

QUARTER-FINAL

* Q.Aruna def M.Kazeem (4-0)

* O.Onaolapo def El-Beiali (4-2)

* O.Assar def B.Oyeniyan (4-1)

* A.Silav def K.Assar. (4-1)

Funke Oshonaike, International Table Tennis Federation, ITTF World Tour, Lagos Open, Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos, Togo

WOMEN

QUARTER FINAL

*D.Meshref def Y.Helmy (4-0)

* O.Edem def J.Effiom (4-0)

* O.Oshonaike def G.Nasser (4-3)

* J.Shao def I. Ermakova (4-0)

FIXTURES

MEN’S DOUBLES FINAL

*A.Silva & D.Silava vs Q.Aruna & M.Kazeem

WOMEN’S DOUBLES FINAL

* D.Meshref & J.Shao vs C.Akpan vs O.Edem

Winner International Table Tennis Federation, ITTF World Tour, Lagos Open, Men’s Under21 Shagdy Magdy of Egypt

MEN’S SINGLES

SEMI- FINAL

* Q.Aruna vs O.Onaolapo

* O.Assar vs A. Silva

WOMENS SINGLES

SEMI-FINAL

* D.Meshref vs O.Edem

* O.Oshonaike vs J.Shao.

Lagos ITTF World Tour: Quadri, Meshref Are Top Seeds

As the highest world-rated players listed for the competition, Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and Egypt’s Dina Meshref 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.

In the seeding list released by the world table tennis ruling body, ITTF, 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 Nigeria’s 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 list of the men’s singles are Portugal’s Andre Silva, Nigeria’s Boboye Oyeniyan, Egypt’s Khalid Assar, Nigeria’s Ojo Onaolapo and Togo’s Mawussi Agbetoglo.

Last year’s runner’s up and ITTF Africa Senior Championship winner, Meshref tops the women’s top four seeding list. Nigeria’s Funke Oshonaike and Edem Offiong 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, while other players listed in the top four seeding list are Egypt’s duo of Shady Magdy and Mahmoud Fathy as well as Nigeria’s Olajide Omotayo.

Nigerian Women’s Team, at the 2015 ITTF-Africa Senior Championships

Egypt dominated the girls’ U-21 seeding with 20 year-old Meshref topping 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.

ITTF releases prospectus for Lagos World Tour

To acquaint countries about the staging of the 2014 Lagos World Tour, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) on Thursday released the official prospectus for the tournament holding in June this year.

The world table tennis ruling body has also uploaded the prospectus on its website for the 214 national associations.
According to the ITTF Director of Competitions, Karl Jindrak, the Lagos World Tour tagged Nigeria Open is one of the Challenge Series listed by ITTF on its 2014 calendar.

Players hoping to be part of the championship are expected to register through their national associations, while the preliminary
entries commence on May 10 with the final entries for singles on May 24.

There will be a charge of $150 cancellation fee for each player cancelled after the entry deadline. This period starts on the day of closing the final entries, one month before the event. These cancellation amounts will be added to the association’s invoice to be paid together with the hospitality costs to the organizers either by bank transfer or by cash on site,” Jindrak said.

He added: “Associations with pending payments of cancellation fee will not be allowed to enter any World Tour events as long as the payment is not fulfilled.”

Four events – men and women singles as well as U-21 men and women singles will be competed at the four-day championship holding at Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos.

The total prize money for the tournament is $39,700 with men singles winner carting home $5,000.

The Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) organizes the tournament with support from the Lagos State Government.

Egypt’s Omar Assar who beat Nigeria’s Segun Toriola to emerge champion at the maiden edition of the tournament tagged Lagos Classics has promised to return to Lagos to defend his title, while Cecilia Otu-Akpan who defied all odds to lift the title in the women event will be part of the Nigerian team to the World Championship in Tokyo, Japan.