The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has ranked Nigeria’s teenage table tennis sensation Musa Mustapha as the world’s best player in the boys’ U-11 Cadet category.
Mustapha made his senior debut at the 2018 Nigeria Open in Lagos and was part of the Nigerian team that won the 2019 ITTF Junior Circuit in Ghana.
According to the rankings released by the ITTF, Mustapha has 128 points, which made him number one in the U-11, while he is also ranked 17th in the U-13 category.
The Mustapha brothers, Musa and Mustapha are back again for the Nigeria Open, a year older and perhaps wiser.
Although they both fell at the very first hurdle to older opponents in the qualifying stage of the U21 men’s singles.#NigeriaOpen19#NigeriaOpen2019 pic.twitter.com/oYyknRoRsB— ITTF Nigeria Open (@ITTFNigeriaOpen) August 7, 2019
Mustapha becomes the second African to be rated number one in the world after Hana Goda was in 2020 named the best U-15 girls in the world.
Meanwhile, National junior champion Taiwo Matti is ranked 12th and 64th in the U-17 and U-19 world rankings respectively.
The new WTT Youth Series replaces the ITTF World Junior Circuit and is now complemented by the new ranking regulations.
The WTT Youth Series will be hosted by Portugal from May 11 to 17 and it will serve as the first youth table tennis event to be held since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Source: premiumtimesng