Table Tennis: Hong Kong Open; Aruna Quadri, 15 Others Aim For Ranking Points

By Admin Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri will join some of the best table tennis players in the world aiming for honours and ranking points at the ITTF World Tour tagged Hong Kong Open billed for the Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Hong Kong. Already, the Nigerian has been listed among the 16-man seeding list for the $145,000 prize money championship as most of the players are targeting ranking points in the Asia city. Quadri who recently claimed the Portuguese league with Sporting, is seeded 13th, while Egypt’s Omar Assar has been seeded sixth, with home boy Ting Chun Wong the number one seed. Quadri and other 15 seeded players will start their campaign from the main draw on May 24, while the qualifiers began on May 22. A confident Quadri said he is hoping to finish among the best in the event. “I will try my best to do well and I hope my best will see me through because this is the assembly of crème-de-la-crème in world table tennis,” he said. Also, the Olympic Games gold medallist, World champion and winner of the Men’s World Cup, alongside colleague Ma Long are the only player to hold all three prestigious titles at the same time but for China’s Zhang Jike, in order to reserve a place in the Hong Kong Open, he must succeed compete in qualification tournament. Home fans will be very much focus on Wong Chun Ting. He is the top seed in the Men’s Singles event. Furthermore, he partners Ho Kwan Kit in the Men’s Doubles competition where they are the no. 3 seeds, behind Korea Republic’s Jeoung Youngsik and Lee Sangsu, the runners up earlier this year in Germany. Japan’s Jin Ueda and Maharu Yoshimura are the no.2 seeds. Likewise, the name of Lee Sangsu is prominent in the Men’s Singles event. He is the no. 2 seed ahead of Japan’s Kenta Matsudaira, Portugal’s Marcos Freitas and Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chih-Yuan. Egypt’s Omar Assar, Denmark’s Jonathan Groth and Germany’s Ruwen Filus complete the top eight names. Credit: theeagleonline.com