Aruna ranked 17th, reclaims Africa’s top spot

Quadri Aruna has returned to the top of the continental ranking, less than two months after losing it. He did so by shooting up to 17th place in the most recent ITTF rankings, which were made public on Tuesday by the world table tennis governing body.

Aruna moved up the rankings ladder by two spots to take the top spot among African players worldwide. She most recently won back the ITTF Africa Cup in Rwanda earlier this month.

Omar Assar of Egypt, who defeated Aruna in the most recent rankings, fell to 22nd in the world rankings. Prior to this, he had held the top spot in Africa for the previous two months after winning the last African Games in Ghana.

The reason behind Assar's decline in the world ranking was the expiration of the quarterfinal points he earned at the 2023 World Championships in Durban, South Africa. This automatically cost him some points, which in turn caused him to drop in the rankings.
One of the biggest movesr in Africa in May was Mohamed El-Beiali of Egypt, who after finishing second at the 2024 ITTF Africa Cup, rose to rank third on the continent and 49th globally. In Kigali, he was defeated 4-0 by Aruna.

Egypt's Dina Meshref, the 24th-best player in the world, maintained her position at the top of Africa even though she fell a step.

Hana Goda, a native of Meshref, held her position as the world's thirty-first-ranked person.

After all Olympic continental quotas were completed, players are now eager to use the world ranking to secure their tickets to Paris. The world ranking will take effect on June 11 when ITTF completes the roster of competitors for the 2024 Olympic Games in France.