African champions, Quadri Aruna of Nigeria and Dina Meshref of Egypt will lead the African contingent to the first World Table Tennis, WTT Series event of the year tagged WTT Contender Durban 2023.
This will be the first time, South Africa will host a WTT Contender event and this event among the series of events on WTT’s 2023 calendar commence today and end Sunday, 15 February.
Aruna who recently moved to Russia from Germany to continue his professional career is number four seed in the men’s singles ranked 14th in the world while Meshref is also the number four seed in the women’s singles and ranked 28th in the world.
The Nigerian is the highest ranked African in the world and he will lock horns against some of the world’s best including Brazil’s Hugo Calderano who heads to Durban as the highest ranked player in action.
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Meshref will slug it out with Germany’s Nina Mittelham who heads the Women’s Singles entry list. The World No.14 reached new heights in 2022, climbing from World No.33 to a career best of No.12 throughout the year.
The Women’s singles line-up is fully loaded with a host of the biggest performers in 2022 Contender events ready to do battle.
The WTT Series features Contender and Star Contender events, Champions events for the best 32 men’s and women’s singles players and Grand Smashes, concluding with the end-of-season Cup Finals.
Also, among the series of event, Lagos will play host to one of the three Contender events billed to hold in June.
