Aruna Quadri dropped in the table tennis world rankings

Nigerian table tennis icon Aruna Quadri dropped four places in the latest world rankings for May thanks to her poor recent table tennis competitions.

The 34-year-old remains Africa’s best player, but in the latest rankings released on Wednesday, May 31, he fell from 12th to 16th after scoring just 395 points in the month under review.

At the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships in Durban, South Africa, the 2022 African champion finished with 45 points, but did not make it past the quarterfinals. At the 2023 ITTF-Africa Cup in Nairobi, Kenya, he earned 350 points.

Another Nigerian table tennis star, Taiwo Mati, moved 16 places from 91st to 75th, the highest move of his 19-year career. He earned 180 points in the month under review.

In addition to scoring the same number of points for advancing to the round of 32 at the 2023 ITTF-Africa Cup in Nairobi, Kenya, Mati earned 90 points for advancing to the quarterfinals of the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships in Durban.

Nigeria’s Amadi Omeh rose to the top of the rankings, rising 207 places to 200.

With 75 points, Amadi won the WTTC 2024 West Africa Regional in Accra, Ghana.

The top three athletes in the world are the Chinese trio of Fan Zhendong, Wang Chuqin and Ma Long. Japan’s Tomokazu Harimoto and China’s Liang Jingkun round out the top five players.

Hugo Calderano from Brazil, Lin Gaoyuan and Lin Yun-Ju from China, Dang Qiu from Germany and Truls Moregard from Sweden make it into the top ten male athletes in the world.