ITTF-Africa: Magdy focuses on Nigerian Open

After making his presence felt at the just-concluded ITTF World Tour tagged, “Kuwait Open,” Egypt’s Shady Magdy is hoping for a return to Lagos for the Nigerian Open scheduled for May 18 to 22, 2016, at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of the Teslim Balogun Stadium.

The 20-year-old Egyptian defeated Nigeria’s Ojo Onaolapo to claim the U-21 title at the 2015 Nigerian Open and with his performance at the Kuwait Open, he is roaring to conquer in Lagos.

Despite being edged out in the semifinal of the Kuwait Open at the weekend, the impact Shady Magdy made in Kuwait rattled some top players from Japan and Denmark. Shady Magdy caused a major surprise by beating Japan’s Toni Ryuzaki, the no.11 seed, in the first round and he maintained his good form as the player with no current world ranking in the second round accounted for another Japanese Kohei Sambe, the no. 4 seed, saving three match points in the fourth game, before gaining an early lead, the fifth, and never looked back (3-11, 12-10, 9-11, 15-13, 11-8).

Also, in the opening round of the Men’s Singles qualification event, he had been in good form; extending Denmark’s Zhai Yujia, listed at no.105, on the current Men’s World Rankings, the full seven games distance (11-7, 11-9, 5-11, 11-7, 9-11, 12-14, 11-8).

But Shady Magd’s adventures came to a conclusion on Friday March 18 at the semi-final stage of the U-21 Men’s Singles event. He found the fast attacking skills of Hong Kong’s Ho Kwan Kit, the no.2 seed, just too hot to handle; a straight games defeat was the order of the day (11-5, 11-3, 11-9). Disappointment for Shady Magdy but he was realistic. “Looking back I have to be pleased with my level here”, he concluded. “Now I want to play more high level matches; hopefully I will go to the Polish Open and the Nigerian Open,” he said.

In Nigeria he is the defending U-21 Men’s Singles champion. Last year he defeated the host nation’s Ojo Onaolapo in the final. Notably on that occasion he recovered from a two-game to nil deficit to secure success.