Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna will begin his quest for glory at the 2022 WTT Champions in Macao against Anton Kallberg of Sweden on Thursday (tomorrow).

It would be a return of the 2022 Africa Senior Championship winner to the table after missing the World Team Championships in Chengdu, China, earlier this month.

Aruna will face 25-year-old Kallberg for a chance to secure a spot in the round of 16 of the series presented by Galaxy Entertainment Group.

The 34-year-old table tennis legend reached the quarterfinals of the 2021 edition of the competition in Houston (U.S.) but lost 2-4 to Sweden’s Truls Möregärdh in the tie.

The competition began today (Wednesday) and has not been favourable to African representatives as Hana Goda, and Mariam Alhodaby lost their matches in the women’s round of 32.

Fourteen-year-old Goda, who became the youngest table tennis player to win an African senior continental when she struck gold at the ITTF-Africa Cup in Lagos earlier this year, lost 3-0 to fourth seed Wang Yidi of China.

Alhodaby, also an Egyptian, lost by the same score to Hana Matelova of the Czech Republic on Wednesday morning.

Thirty-two players in each of the men’s and women’s categories will compete in this year’s event with a lot at stake, including up to 1000 ranking points, various titles and a massive $800,000 in total prize money.