The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has confirmed August 8 to 12 for the 2018 ITTF Challenge Nigeria Open holding at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium.
The date was relayed to the Main Organising Committee (MOC) of the Africa’s elite table tennis tournament at the weekend.
The three-man referee team for the championship has been named by ITTF. The tournament referee is Algeria’s Abdallah
Boudjahem and he will be deputized by South Africa’s Roderick Volkwyn while Nigeria’s most experienced umpire, John Peters is the assistant referee.
Also, the world table tennis ruling body has described the tournament as one of the well-organised and most-followed competitions in the ITTF calendar.
From the statistics obtained by ITTF, over 74m across the globe watched the 2017 edition of the tournament through Supersport across the globe.
The tennis body says it intends to make the tournament a pride for Africa particularly with the presence of top players across the globe willing to travel to Lagos to be part of the tournament.
Aside, China and Germany which attract more fans to venues; Nigeria Open has become a benchmark for other nations as it commands more fans than any other tournaments in the world.
As the second highest prize money tournament after Spanish Open, there are plans by the Lagos State Government to increase the purse of the championship.
According to MOC, some top players from Europe have expressed their willingness to be part of this year’s tournament, following the testimonies from their counterparts that have graced previous editions.
The MOC is also planning to introduce more innovations this year as part of the yearly legacies of the competition.
In 2017 for the first time, media scholarships were awarded to undergraduates from tertiary institutions in Nigeria while the tournament made an impressive presence on social media across the globe.
Defending champion and four-time winner of the men’s singles title – Egypt’s Omar Assar has already confirmed his participation. The Egyptian who recently signed for Borussia Dusseldorf in the German Bundesliga described Lagos as a fertile ground with huge fan base.