"It's good to be king of your own little town," observed the late, great Tom Petty. This summer, royalty from realms of all sizes will toss their crowns in the ring at the Tokyo Olympics. Quadri Aruna of Nigeria (pictured, left) has passed most of the last five years as Africa's highest-ranked player. The world #21 Aruna now enjoys a comfortable distance from his nearest African rival, Egypt's #43 Omar Assar, thus earning Aruna the continental crown. Not to be outdone, China's Ma Long (pictured, right) has spent over half of the last decade as the world's highest-ranked player. His 64 months at #1 is a record for any man in the history of the game, giving Ma full license to push Leonardo DiCaprio aside and proclaim himself king of the world. Both 32 years of age, Aruna and Ma have crossed paths before. In the 2016 Rio Olympics, Aruna made a historic run to the quarterfinals, the best-ever showing for an African player. After upsetting Chuang Chih-yuan and Timo Boll, Aruna's magical run was abruptly terminated by none other than Ma Long, the champion-elect. With a pandemic-protracted pause between Olympiads, the defending gold medalist Ma has had all too much time to watch his younger rivals grow stronger. Ma's biggest obstacle to a repeat comes from his own teammate, 24-year-old world #1 Fan Zhendong. While the two Chinese teammates and friendly rivals eye each other askance, however, Quadri Aruna is setting sights on both of them. The African champion now aims to break up the Chinese medal monopoly. Recently honored with the captainship of the entire 52-athlete Nigerian Olympic team, Aruna cites his experience playing in the German Bundesliga as a key asset heading to Tokyo. "I was very happy to play in the Bundesliga, one of the best leagues in Europe," said Aruna, who went 15-10 this year in the world-class league. "I think the experience of the Bundesliga will make a difference for me at the Olympics." Of course, a veteran player like Aruna knows the odds are not in his favor. Still, in an always unpredictable sport made even more so by the year-long suspension of play, he hopes to find favor from the fickle finger of fate. "Table tennis is the number one sport in China," explains Aruna. "They put a lot of money into the sport, and they have the best coaches who understand the game. But I think it is possible to pull a surprise in Tokyo. My target is to win a medal, and I hope to be lucky." With a few fortunate bounces, Aruna could very well have a substantially larger town to rule.

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