For local and foreign-based players to compete at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Tour tagged ‘Nigerian Open’, players across the country will compete in the qualifiers, which has been scheduled to serve off on April 1.
At the two-day tournament, eight players made up of four men and four women will join others in the main ITTF World Tour which will begin on May 18 to 22 at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun stadium in Lagos state.
According to the prospectus of the qualifiers, “the tournament shall be used to select players to represent Nigeria in the men’s singles and women’s singles at the World Tour Nigerian Open scheduled for May 18 to 22. Only the four highest ITTF ranked Nigerian players in the April 2016 world ranking in both events shall qualify automatically to represent Nigeria. All players not qualifying automatically but who wish to represent Nigeria are therefore advised to play in the qualifying tournament”.
To be eligible for the qualifying event, only players registered by states which are affiliated to the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) or foreign based Nigerian players will be allowed to compete. All players should have the current NTTF player’s license, which must be produced on demand.
It stated further that “all intending players shall signify their intention to play by registering with the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation with a copy to the referee. The organisers may disqualify a player if information supplied is found to be false.
“All players shall abide by the rules and regulations of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation and the International Table Tennis Federation, particularly as regards fair play. All players shall not, by their action or inaction, bring the sport into disrepute. All players shall strive to win all matches, no matter who their opponent is.”
For the qualifiers format, the registered players will be drawn into pools and matches will be played in a group round robin, with qualifiers from each group advancing into second round in both events while matches in round one round robin shall be best of five games. Matches in round two shall be best of seven games and shall be played on knock-out basis.