With less than eight days to the commencement of the 2017 World Cup, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) yesterday has formally confirmed Aruna Quadri and 19 others for the prestigious tournament holding in Liege, Belgium.
Also, the female players that will compete in the Women’s World Cup have also been confirmed including African champion, Egypt’s Dina Meshref.
Quadri who at the weekend claimed his first ITTF title outside Africa is hoping to improve on his 2014 quarterfinal performance in Dusseldorf, Germany as well as use the tournament to erase the first round exit at the 2016 edition in Saarbrucken, Germany.
This weekend, Quadri is expected to go into close camping in Lisbon in readiness for the championships serving off on October 20 to 22.
Aside Quadri, Egypt’s Omar Assar who qualified through the world ranking will be the second representative of Africa being the first time the continent will be having two players competing in the lucrative competition.
Reigning World Champion, China’s Ma Long and her compatriot who is the world number two female player, Zhu Yuling will be heading the respective seeding at the Men’s & Women’s World Cup, and will compete for the prestigious World Cup titles alongside Continental Champions as well as other top players who had qualified through their Continental Cups.
After the withdrawal of the female world champion, China’s Ding Ning from the Women’s World Cup due to her physical condition, Ding’s teammate Liu Shiwen was selected to replace Ding at the event, given her strong past Women’s World Cup performance and her second-place finish at the 2017 ITTF-ATTU Asian Cup, and will be aiming for a record fifth title in 2017.
With their strong form in recent events, European top stars Portugal’s Marcos Freitas and Romania’s Elizabeta Samara were given the wildcard places to compete at the Men’s & Women’s World Cups respectively for their chance at the titles.
The ITTF Men’s & Women’s World Cups will start off with players seeded nine to 20 playing round robin in the group stage to fight for their chance to join the top eight players in the second stage, where a knockout system will be played to determine the winner.
The ITTF Men’s World Cup will be in its 38th edition in 2017 since its inauguration in 1980 in Hong Kong, whereas the Women’s World Cup will be in its 21st year since it first started in 1996 in Hong Kong as well.