108 unseeded players begin WTT Lagos contender singles qualifiers

No fewer than 108 unseeded players will begin the battle for qualification to the main draw today in the opening matches of the World Table Tennis (WTT) Lagos Contenders inside the indoors sports hall, Teslim Balogun Stadium. The unseeded players in 16 groups will simultaneously play on four tables in turns of their scheduled time […]

No fewer than 108 unseeded players will begin the battle for qualification to the main draw today in the opening matches of the World Table Tennis (WTT) Lagos Contenders inside the indoors sports hall, Teslim Balogun Stadium.

The unseeded players in 16 groups will simultaneously play on four tables in turns of their scheduled time to grab the tickets to the round of 32 of both the men and women Singles commencing on Thursday.

The opening matches will see Nigeria’s David Fayele and Benin’s Mouyassir Gafarou clashing in the men’s category while Ghana’s Agnes Coleman is paired to play against Nigeria’s Joy Emmanuel who came through wildcard in the women’s category on table one.

Ahead of the tournament, the President ITTF Africa, Enitan Oshodi in an interview with newsmen yesterday, expressed optimism that this edition will surpass the previous two editions, saying Africa requires more recognition to extend the competition to more countries in the continent.

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He stressed that Tunisia and Nigeria are the two countries that host the tournament among 60 WTT events held yearly worldwide.

“I think we have about 60 to 70 contender tournaments worldwide every year and Africa has only two. That tells you where we are. We are still very far behind. And if you look at the Tunisia contender, it’s an excellent event.

“Tunisia’s closeness to Europe makes it easy for players to attend whereas the high cost of transportation all impacts this event, but the ITTF wants more countries,” he said.

Oshodi also hinted that plans are underway to commence Africa Safari Series to domicile more competitions in countries on the continent.

“We are talking about the Africa Safari Series now. So we’re hopeful that we can bring more events to Africa. We need to bring more events to Africa. We need our players to make money at home,” he said.

In this edition, he noted that e-table tennis would be introduced as a test run, calling on the need for infrastructural improvement.

“We keep trying to improve each year, doing something else. This year we will have e-table tennis. E-sports is of course the way to go,” he said.