In the latest rankings released by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) on Tuesday, Nigeria’s Aruna has moved up to the 18th position with 1,290 points, surpassing Assar who was previously ranked 17th.
Aruna’s impressive performances at the World Table Tennis (WTT) tournaments this year helped him achieve this feat, despite finishing as the runner-up at the 2025 ITTF Africa Cup. He remains the only African male player to have reached the semifinals of the WTT Contender in Doha, repeating his 2023 accomplishment earlier this year with another semifinal finish.
This achievement propelled him ahead of Assar, who was crowned champion of the 2025 ITTF Africa Cup two weeks ago, but dropped to 19th with 1,250 points.
In the women’s category, Egypt’s Hana Goda maintained her top spot in Africa, moving up one place to 26th in the Week 12 ITTF rankings.
