Nigeria players are among the biggest beneficiaries of the new ITTF rankings as Aruna Quadri gained a step to start 2018 at 20, while Olajide Omotayo moved from 514 to 213 in the January 2018 ranking released by the world table tennis ruling body.
Having ended 2017 at 21, Quadri began the year at 21 while Egypt’s Omar Assar also gained from the new ranking system as the Egyptian is ranked 16 in the world.
At world level, a new order took place as the reign of China’s Ma Long came to an end in the new ranking as the Olympic and Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov has displaced the world champion.
According to ITTF, the new system took into consideration the number of competitions that each player competes in while such player is also expected to earn points from every stage he attains in the tournament.
China’s Long, who dropped to seven in the latest rating has dominated the ranking for more than two years missed out from the latest ranking as the best player in the world as the top spot is now being occupied by Germany’s Ovtcharov.
For Ovtcharov, the top spot is a result of a series of outstanding performances in the past year by the now 29 year old that enjoyed the best 12 months of his career.
He won the ITTF Europe Top 16 Cup, as well as at the Liebherr Men’s World Cup in addition to reserving the top step of the podium on the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour in Bulgaria, China, Germany and India.
Additionally he reached the fourth round of the Men’s Singles event at the Liebherr 2017 World Championships and was the runner up at the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals.
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