Today, in the first matches of the World Table Tennis (WTT) Lagos Contenders at the Teslim Balogun Stadium’s indoor sports hall, at least 108 unseeded players will commence their fight for qualification to the main draw.
The unseeded competitors from 16 groups will take turns playing on four tables at their scheduled times, aiming to secure tickets for the men’s and women’s Singles round of 32 starting Thursday
The opening matches will feature a confrontation between Nigeria’s David Fayele and Benin’s Mouyassir Gafarou in the men’s category, while Ghana’s Agnes Coleman faces Nigeria’s Joy Emmanuel, who advanced through a wildcard in the women’s category on table one. In anticipation of the tournament, Enitan Oshodi, President of ITTF Africa, spoke with reporters yesterday and expressed hope that this edition would exceed the previous two, emphasizing that Africa needs greater recognition to expand the competition to more countries across the continent.
He emphasized that Tunisia and Nigeria are the only two countries hosting the tournament among the 60 WTT events organized globally each year.
„Meiner Meinung nach gibt es jährlich weltweit etwa 60 bis 70 Contender-Turniere, von denen nur zwei in Afrika stattfinden. That indicates our current position. We are still lagging significantly. And if you consider the Tunisia contender, it’s a remarkable event
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