Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri has once again affirmed his dominance in African table tennis, finishing 2025 as the continent’s top-ranked player in the final annual rankings released by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).
The 37-year-old, who maintained the African number one spot for most of the year, wrapped up the season ranked 28th in the world with 1,065 ranking points.
This achievement makes him the only African men’s player to cross the 1,000-point mark in the global standings.
Quadri enjoyed an impressive 2025 campaign, reaching the semi-finals of the WTT Star Contender in Doha and advancing to the round of 16 at the World Table Tennis Championships Finals, also staged in Doha.
His strong performances were supported by appearances at several major tournaments, including the Singapore Smash, United States Smash, and WTT Champions events in Macao, Chongqing, Incheon, Yokohama, and Frankfurt. He also competed in multiple WTT Contender and Star Contender competitions throughout the season.
Egypt’s Omar Assar remains Quadri’s closest rival on the continent, currently ranked 32nd in the world. At the top of the global rankings, China’s Wang Chuqin leads the standings, followed by fellow Chinese player Lin Shidong, while Brazil’s Hugo Calderano is the highest-ranked non-Asian player in third place.
A three-time Olympian, Quadri represented Nigeria at the 2012, 2016, and 2020 Olympic Games, famously reaching the quarter-finals at the Rio 2016 Olympics. In May 2022, he made history as the first African table tennis player to break into the world’s top ten.
Widely regarded as one of Africa’s most influential figures in the sport, Quadri was named ITTF Star Player of the Year in 2014, won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games with Nigeria the same year, and has since been recognised by the Olympic movement as Africa’s most successful Olympic table tennis player of all time.
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