28 Oct 2016

On day five at the 2016 ITTF Africa Senior Championship, Nigeria will be waiting to win its first title Aghadir. After narrowly losing out to Egypt in the Men's team finals, they will be eyeing the mixed doubles title.

By Neha Aggarwal

The Nigerian’s have a mission to accomplish on day five. The nail biting match against Egypt in the men’s team finals still haunts. On 28th October 2016, Nigeria and Egypt will face off each other yet again.

This time it will be in the mixed doubles finals. The pair of Segun Toriola and Olufunke Oshonaike will be challenged by the mighty pair of Dina Meshref and Omar Assar of Egypt.

Commenting on the final match Dina Meshref said,

“We are in the final against two of Africa’s most experienced players, Nigeria’s Segun Toriola and Olufunke Oshonaike. I am so excited playing against these top players, I look forward to an exciting match and I hope we can retain our title” – Dina Meshref (Egypt).

While Egypt is aiming to retain their title from 2015, Nigeria will be aiming to win their first title here. Thus, the nerves are held up tight.

Both the pairs have teamed up with their respective partners to play the mixed doubles several times in the past and thus share a good chemistry on the table. In doubles it is important to have a firm understanding of your partner’ strengths and weaknesses and combine it with your own to form strategies against the opponent. Both the pairs understand this and thus are well experienced.

The mixed doubles finals will be played at 8:00pm local time.

The morning session will start with Men’s and women’s doubles round of 32 , followed by round of 16 and then the quarter finals.

Starting afternoon, the Men’s and Women’s singles round of 32 will commence ending with men’s and women’s doubles semi finals. Dina Meshref and Omar Assar are seeded number one in women’s singles and men’s singles respectively.

Finally, the much awaited mixed doubles finals will be played as the last match of the day.

Follow all scores here.

More information

African Championships Omar Assar Dina Meshref Segun TORIOLA Olufunke Oshonaike