Musa Mustapha, nine years old, the youngest players in the Nigeria Open
Impressed with its organization coupled with its global status, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has upgraded the annual Nigeria Open in 2019 to Challenge Plus, which offers more prize money, world ranking points, better playing conditions and TV production.
With new nine cities joining the Challenge Series, the Nigeria Open alongside North Korea, Oman, Portugal, Paraguay and Canada Opens. Nigeria Open was rewarded for its exceptionally strong Challenge Series events over the past few years and the tournament has been allocated a Challenge Plus status.
The 17 events for 2019, includes nine cities that have never hosted a Challenge Series event and will be split into two tiers for the first time, with the top tier being called Challenge Plus which offers more prize money, more world ranking points, better playing conditions and TV production.
The Challenge Series is the Tour below the premier ITTF World Tour, with its goal of providing players from around the world valuable playing opportunities to get the experience and world ranking points to take the next step to playing ITTF World Tour events.
ITTF CEO Steve DAINTON stated: “The increased amount of ITTF Challenge Series events shows the increased interested in organizing table tennis events and the proven success of the change of our world ranking at the start of 2018. These 17 events added to our 13 ITTF World Tour events means that we have 30 tour events in 2019, which provides our players with immense value and fits in with the ITTF’s strategy of having a fully professionally run global tour by 2021.”
Mexico is one of the new names in the second tier of events together with fellow newcomers Morocco, Turkey, Serbia and Indonesia. Spain, Slovenia, Croatia, Thailand, Poland and Belarus all successfully retain their status as Challenge Series hosts for 2019.
ITTF Head of World Cup & Challenge Series Zena SIM added: “It is great seeing the immense interest from so many countries around the world to host a Challenge Series event. Challenge Series events are a perfect platform for new hosts to organize a world-class event, and a good platform for new players to get their first experience playing at international level.
Meanwhile, the youngest players at the Nigeria Open 2018, the Mustapha brothers who hail from Borno State, have been a big hit on social media. Mustapha Mustapha, 10, and his brother Musa, 9, played at their first international tournament on Wednesday in the U-21 men’s singles.
Despite being overpowered by their older opponents in both their two group matches, the Abuja-based duo took away valuable lessons with a vow to keep improving after picking up the sport via their father, Saheed Mustapha, a former player himself, just a year ago.
Their story has been a hit on social media where it was the most retweeted post of the opening day on the tournament’s official account, @ITTFNigeriaOpen. At the time of going to press, it had been retweeted more than 40 times while gaining enquiries from fans and journalists.
Mustapha, whose role model is Germany’s Timo Boll, said: “We began playing table tennis in 2017 and have played in a few other tournaments but the Nigeria Open is our first international tournament. We have learned a lot from playing against more experienced players.”
The younger Musa, whose role model is Japan’s Harimoto Tamokazu, declared confidently: “I will win the Nigeria Open in future.”
Mustapha lost to Nigeria’s Augustine Emmanuel 11-3, 11-2, 11-8 in the first group game and to Wang Xinyang of China in the second.
Musa lost to Tobi Falana 11-3, 11-6, 11-2 in his first group game before falling to Wael Ziad of Egypt in his second game.
The experience gotten from the Nigeria Open 2018 will help the Mustapha brothers’ confidence as they continue their table tennis journey.