Quadri Aruna was on Thursday confirmed as the 15th player among the top 16 the WTT Finals event in Doha as the Nigerian stars will be making his third appearance at the season-ending event.
Regarded as the peak of the WTT Series, the WTT Finals provides the opportunity for the best 16 men’s players in the world to battle for a share of $340,000 prize money at stake.
Aruna remains the only African player to have featured in the WTT Finals having competed at the maiden edition in Singapore as well as the 2022 edition in China. In his maiden outing, the Nigerian caused a major upset after beating world number eight Liang Jingkun of China 3-1 to hit the quarterfinal while he was beaten by Brazil’s Hugo Calderano to exit the tournament.
At the 2022 edition in China, he exited in the first round after losing 3-1 to world number eight Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yun-Ju.
For the third consecutive edition, Aruna will be making a return to compete against the world elite players from January 3 to 5, 2024, while the Nigerian holds the record as the first African to hit the quarterfinal of the tournament.
In the list of confirmed players made public by WTT, Aruna has been included as the latest qualifiers to join the squad heading to Doha.
Players that had already booked for spots at the tournament include Fan Zhendong (China), Wang Chuqin (China), Ma Long (China), Hugo Calderano (Brazil), Liang Jingkun (China), Lin Yun-Yu (Chinese Taipei), Felix Lebrun (France), Lin Gaoyuan (China), Jang Woojin (South Korea), Lin Shidong (China), Tomokazu Harimoto (Japan), Dimitrij Ovtcharov (Germany), Dang Qiu (Germany) and Darko Jorgic (Slovenia).
The battle for sole slot will be between Anton Kallberg (Sweden) and Marcos Freitas (Portugal) while the only option for Freitas to steal the spot from Kallberg is if he reaches the final of WTT Feeder Vila Nova de Gaia in Portugal later this month.
Credit: thenationonlineng.net
