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 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.
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.
