It is an appreciable improvement again in 2019 as Germany, Austria and 30 other countries will be represented at the Seamaster ITTF Challenge Plus Nigeria Open from August 7 to 11 at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos.
Over 171 players made up of 105 men and 66 women have been confirmed for the tournament with European teams dominating the list with 17 countries from the continent being led by top table tennis playing nations – Austria, Germany and France.
Others are Belgium, Croatia, England, Hungary, Italy, Israel, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Slovenia, Slovakia and Sweden.
Nigeria and Egypt will be leading the African teams while others expected are Algeria, Benin Republic, Congo Brazzaville, Congo DRC, Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal and South Africa.
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Brazil will represent the South America continent while Asia will be represented by India, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Thailand.
Being an improvement from the 27 countries that featured in the 2018 edition, this year’s edition is one of the pioneer tournaments of the ITTF Challenge Plus Series and it is one of the six ITTF Challenge Plus in 2019.
The Seamaster ITTF Challenge Plus Nigeria Open is the fourth out of the six ITTF Challenge Plus across the globe, as the players fight for improved ranking points.
In terms of prize money, the purse of the tournament has been jerked to $60,000 with players competing in seven titles on offer: Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles, Mixed Doubles, U-21 Men’s Singles and U-21 Women’s Singles.
According to the chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC), Wahid Oshodi, the excitement synonymous with the tournament has continued to attract top players to Lagos
