29th August, 2013
After the conclusion of the group matches in the men and women’s singles of the first Lagos International Table Tennis Classics, the stage is now set for the knockout matches Thursday.
Also, yesterday, the number one seed in the mixed doubles, Egypt’s Omar Assar and Nigeria’s Funke Oshonaike were shown the exit in the event by the Nigerian duo of Olaide Atinuke and Seun Ajetunmobi.
In the group matches, each player played three matches with the top two players in each group progressing to the round of 32 in the men’s singles, while the top two players in the women’s singles advancing to the round of 16. The men’s singles had 16 groups while the women’s
singles had eight groups.
In the singles, all the seeded players made it to the knockout stage, while the two upsets recorded in the group matches were recorded by Nigeria’s Sola Oyetayo and Bose Odusanya, who both defeated seeded players like Mihai Bobocica and Rashidat Ogundele.
Despite losing a match each, Bobocica and Ogundele progressed to the next stage of the tournament.
However, Africa’s number one player, Egypt’s Assar could not make an headway in the mixed doubles as her pairing with Nigeria’s Oshonaike met their waterloo losing 2-11, 11-8, 12-10, 12-10 to exit the event.
The players that advanced to the knockout stage in the women’s singles are dominated by Nigerian players while Congo Brazzaville duo of Han Xing and Onyiyechi Nwachukwu as well as Congo DRC’s Ammadine Litobaka also booked their places in the round of 16. The Nigerian players that secured their spots are Funke Oshonaike, Halimat Hussain, Itoro Akpan, Ganiyat Olatunde, Cecilia Otu-Akpan, Janet Effiom, Taiwo Williams, Ganiyat Ogundele, Olaide Atinuke, Rashidat Ogundele and Tolu Durosimi-Etti.
In the men’s singles, all the top seeds like Egypt’s Assar, Italy’s Bobocica, Nigeria’s Segun Toriola, Aruna Quadri, Seun Ajetunmobi, Ojo Onaolapo, Kayode Adedeji and Sola Oyetayo among others will play in the round of 32 knockout matches.