Nigeria’s Olufunke Oshonaike has been handed the biggest task of her career after been drawn in the first round against world number one female player and world champion, Ning Ding, in the ongoing 2015 ITTF World Championships holding at the Suzhou International Expo Centre in China.
Oshonaike made it to the main draw in China, after playing the game of her life to become one of the unseeded players that qualified into the main draw of the championship.
To berth in the main draw, Oshonaike defeated players from Costa Rica, Mexico and Tunisia, while her toughest challenge was against Tunisia’s Safa Saidani, whom she played 4-3 against.
Oshonaike was happy about her performance, but she will confront another big hurdle when she faces home favourite and world champion, China’s Ning Ding, in her first round match on the centre table by 6am Nigerian time.
Kazeem Makanjuola failed to advance to the main draw after losing his second group match 4-3 to Argentina’s Pablo Tabachnik.
Africa’s most decorated player, Segun Toriola, was in his fine form when he defeated Switzerland’s Weber Lionel 4-3 to book his place in the main draw.
Toriola had won his two group matches against players from Algeria and Qatar.
The former African champion will tackle Chinese Taipei’s Sheng-Sheng Huang, while Aruna Quadri will battle India’s Soumyajit Ghosh.
Also Egyptian players led by Omar Assar will be in action with Assar tackling Singapore’s Clarence Zhe Yu Chew, El-Sayed Lashin will face Germany’s Patrick Franziska while Mohammed El-Beiali will battle Austria’s Daniel Habesohn.
Meanwhile Nigeria’s duo of Toriola and Oshonaike were shown the exit in the mixed doubles by Netherlands.