African number one Table tennis player, Aruna Quadri will face world number 5, Hugo Calderano of Brazil in his first game of the season at the World Table TennisMen’s Singles Final held in Doha, Qatar from 3rd to 5th of January, platinumnewsng.com is reporting.
The tournament sees the top 16 ranked table tennis players in the world battling it out for the trophy.
Aruna is the only African player to have featured in the tournament since the first edition in 2021, and in the 2024 edition, Aruna is the lowest-ranked player going into the tournament.
Aruna’s best outing was in 2022 when he defeated the then World number six, Liang Jinkhun of China to make it to the last eight of the competition.
He eventually lost in the quarter-final to Brazil’s Hugo Calderano who is his first-round opponent this year. He is expected to be at his best to be able to advance to the quarter-finals or record a better performance this year.
Aruna is currently the lowest-ranked player in the 16th position with 1175 points and his opponent, Hugo Calderano is ranked 5th position with 2875 points.
The game is expected to be held on Wednesday at 10:30 am