Nigerian Table Tennis star, Quadri Aruna, has emerged the first African to win the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Male Star Award.
The prestigious award, the highest honour in Table Tennis, was conferred on Quadri at spectacular awards ceremony in Dubai held at Armani Hotel in the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa.
Quadri’s award caps a remarkable year for the Nigerian who started the year ranked at 237th in the world and ended it at the 30th position. Quadri’s win came at the expense of other proven tennis stars as the Nigerian beat off competition Marcos Freitas of Portugal and Fan Zhendong and Xu Xin- both from China.
Quadri, after winning the award, categorically stated that it was the best day of his life. “This is the best day of my career and my life,” an elated Quadri said. “I feel so great to be the winner in the midst of the world’s superstars. This award means the world to me.”
Other winners on the night were Ding Ning of China, who picked up the Female Table Tennis Star award ahead of Liu Shiwen, also of China, Japan’s Kasumi Ishikawa and Singapore’s Feng Tianwei. The Male Para Table Tennis Star went to Spain’s Alvaro Valera while the Female Para Table Tennis Star was won by Sandra Paović of Croatia. The first-ever Table Tennis Star Coach award went to Pedro Rufino of Portugal, who led his country to an European Championship gold, ahead of Volker Ziegler of Germany and China’s Kong Linghui.
The Male and Female awards were decided by 60,000 public votes from across the world alongside decisions by an expert panel comprising of representatives from the International Table Tennis Federation Athletes Commission, the International Table Tennis Federation Para Division, the International Table Tennis Federation President, Thomas Weikert and four members of the international media.
Aruna has enjoyed a fantastic year as he won the ITTF Africa Cup and achieved the highest-ever ranking by an African player. The 2014 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Male Star Award was sponsored by Ping Pong Dubai.
