The Most Famous
TABLE TENNIS PLAYERS from Nigeria
This page contains a list of the greatest Nigerian Table Tennis Players. The pantheon dataset contains 107 Table Tennis Players, 2 of which were born in Nigeria. This makes Nigeria the birth place of the 18th most number of Table Tennis Players behind Taiwan, and India.
Top 2
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Nigerian Table Tennis Players of all time. This list of famous Nigerian Table Tennis Players is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Quadri Aruna (b. 1988)
With an HPI of 38.00, Quadri Aruna is the most famous Nigerian Table Tennis Player. His biography has been translated into 13 different languages on wikipedia.
Quadri Akinade Aruna (born 9 August 1988) is a professional Nigerian table tennis player. He competed for Nigeria at the 2012 Summer Olympics, 2016 Summer Olympics, and 2020 Summer Olympics, reaching the quarter-finals in 2016. He is the first African player to be ranked in the top 10 in the world. At the World Cup 2014, he reached the quarter-finals in the Men's Singles competition. In the 2017 ITTF World Challenge Bulgaria Open, he advanced to the semi-finals, where the eventual winner Dimitrij Ovtcharov defeated him in a tight match. Aruna is known for his forehand-oriented playing style, which has earned him many wins. He is a Gewo-sponsored player. In 2014, he was ranked number 30 in world table tennis, and the International Table Tennis Federation named him the Star Player of the Year. He was also part of the Nigerian team that won bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. At the club level, Aruna Quadri recently teamed up with TTC RhönSprudel Maberzell Fulda, a top German Bundesliga Table Tennis club. In 2018, he was declared as Africa's most successful Olympic table tennis player of all time by the Olympics in an article.
2. Olajide Omotayo (b. 1995)
With an HPI of 10.53, Olajide Omotayo is the 2nd most famous Nigerian Table Tennis Player. His biography has been translated into 4 different languages.
Olajide Omotayo Adeyemi (born 6 July 1995, in Lagos, Nigeria) is a Nigerian professional table tennis player based in Italy. He is the youngest of 6 siblings. His peak world ranking to date was 85. He is currently ranked 144 in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Men Singles World Ranking. He is the current Champion of Africa after defeating Quadri Aruna to win Gold in the Men's Singles at the 2019 African Games, his debut appearance. Olajide is known for his offensive playing style with a strong topspin stroke. In 2017, Olajide secured a five-year sponsorship deal with the German manufacturer of kits, Gewo. He competed for Nigeria at the 2016 African Championship (doubles event) and the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in Australia, winning Bronze and silver, respectively. His first international appearance for Nigeria was in 2008 as a cadet at the 2008 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) African Junior and Cadet Championships, which was held in Alexandria, Egypt. In 2019, he was nominated for the Nigerian Sportsman of the Year Award by the ITTF.
People
Pantheon has 2 people classified as Nigerian table tennis players born between 1988 and 1995. Of these 2, 2 (100.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Nigerian table tennis players include Quadri Aruna, and Olajide Omotayo. As of April 2024, 2 new Nigerian table tennis players have been added to Pantheon including Quadri Aruna, and Olajide Omotayo.
