3rd December, 2014
Taiwo Adelu
The International Table Tennis Federation, ITTF, announced Wednesday its nominees for the 2014 Male and Female Table Tennis Star Awards with Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri making one of the four shortlist in the male category.
The winner is expected to be crowned at the second edition of Dubai 2014 ITTF Star Awards in Dubai on 7 January 2015 at the Armani Hotel, located at the base of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, which is a fitting location to honour the world’s best players.
Quadri, world’s number 30 player is described by the ITTF Athletes’ Commission as the highest ranked African player of the last 30 years. He was nominated alongside Chian’s Fan Zhendong, the 2014 Youth Olympic Games winner, who is the world’s number 3. Others are Portugal’s Marcos Freitas, 2014 European Team Table Tennis Championships winner and first Portuguese player to be ranked top 10 in the world and Xu Xin of China, the world’s number one and 2013 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals winner who also won the 2014 Asian Games. The male award is presented by Ping Pong Dubai.
In the women’s category are 2014 ITTF Women’s World Cup winner and world’s number one, Ding Ning of China, Singapore’s Tianwei Feng who won three World Tour event this year and currently the world’s number four, Japanese Kasumi Ishikawa, leader of her country’s national team, silver medallist at the World Team Table Tennis Championships, who is also the world’s number six and China’s Liu Shiwen, world’s number two, who won the 2013 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals and the 2014 Asian Games. The Female Table Tennis Star is presented Nittaku
Fans are to vote for their star player of 2014 at ITTFStarAwards.com between now and the end of 17 December. Fans’ votes will be combined with judging by an expert panel, including their peers and the media to determine the Table Tennis Stars of 2014.
In addition to the Men’s and Women’s Stars, an additional five awards will be handed in Dubai. These include Para Male Table Tennis Star presented by Tinsue, Para Female Table Tennis Star presented by Stag International, Table Tennis Star Point presented by DHS, Table Tennis Star Coach presented by Butterfly and Fair Play Star.