January 18, (THEWILL) – Africa’s top seed, Quadri Aruna, has been drawn to face Portuguese star, Marcos Freitas, in the first round of the 2023 World Table Tennis (WTT) Contender Doha 2023, set to take place in Qatar.
Aruna, who is currently the highest-ranked African player in the world at 14th place, is seeded second in the men’s singles behind Brazil’s Hugo Calderano, the winner of the WTT Contender Durban, which ended last week.
Despite a quarterfinal finish at the WTT Contender in Durban, Aruna remains confident in his abilities, citing his recent performance in Durban as a good start after moving from the German league to the Russian league. Aruna also acknowledged that there is no easy match at the WTT Contender Doha, as all players are at the same level regardless of their world ranking.
A total prize pool of $75,000 and 400 World Ranking points will be up for grabs for the winners at this year’s championship in Doha. Other top players to look out for at the 2023 WTT Contender Doha include the Contender Muscat II 2022 winner, South Korea’s Jang Woojin, and Star Contender Doha 2022 winner, Andrej Gacina of Croatia.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
