Omar Assar

Omar Muhammadi Muhammad Muhammad Assar (born 22 July 1991) is an Egyptian table tennis player.^[1] He won silver in singles and gold in team play at the 2011 Arab Games in Doha. He also competed at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics in the Men's singles, but was defeated in the second round on both occasions.^[2][3]

Omar Assar
Full name	Omar Muhammadi Muhammad Muhammad Assar
Born	(1991-07-22) 22 July 1991 (age 33) Desouk, Egypt
Height	194 cm (6 ft 4 in)
Weight	92 kg (203 lb)
Table tennis career
Playing style	shake hand grip, right handed
Current ranking	17 (12 August 2024)
Medal record Men's table tennis Representing  Egypt African Games 2011 Maputo Singles 2011 Maputo Team 2015 Brazzaville Singles 2019 Rabat Team 2019 Rabat Mixed Doubles 2023 Accra Singles 2023 Accra Team 2011 Maputo Doubles 2015 Brazzaville Team 2011 Maputo Mixed Doubles 2015 Brazzaville Doubles 2015 Brazzaville Mixed Doubles 2019 Rabat Mixed Doubles African Championships 2010 Yaounde Team 2010 Yaounde Doubles 2012 Cairo Mixed Doubles 2012 Cairo Team 2015 Cairo Singles 2015 Cairo Mixed Doubles 2015 Cairo Team 2024 Addis Ababa Singles 2010 Yaounde Singles 2012 Cairo Singles 2012 Cairo Doubles 2015 Cairo Doubles Africa Senior Cup 2015 Yaounde Singles Africa TOP 16 Cup 2014 Lagos Singles Mediterranean Games 2013 Mersin Singles 2022 Oran Singles Pan Arab Games 2011 Doha Team 2011 Doha Singles

Career

2012 Olympics

At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Assar competed in the men's singles, where he lost in the second round to Panagiotis Gionis, and the men's team event, where Egypt lost in the first round to Austria.^[3]

2016 Olympics

At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Assar competed in the men's singles only. He lost in the second round again, this time narrowly losing 3–4 to Lei Kou of Ukraine.^[3]

ITTF World Championships 2017

Men's singles

Assar competed in the 2017 World Table Tennis Championships, seeded as number 50, facing off against Italian player Marco Rech in the first round, whom he defeated in a close match (4-3), having lost the first 3 sets. In the second round, he was defeated by Hong Kong player, and number 7 seed Wong Chun Ting (2-4).

Men's doubles

Assar teamed with fellow Egyptian player Mohamed El-Beiali for the doubles event, in which they were unseeded and faced the number 5 seed Brazilian of Hugo Calderano and Gustavo Tsuboi, losing the match (2-4).

"Mixed Doubles"

Assar teamed with fellow Egyptian player Dina Meshref for the mixed doubles event, seeded as number 12 team. They advanced to the third round of the tournament, before being eliminated by the Spanish team of Álvaro Robles and Galia Dvorak (1-4).

All-African Games

Assar won both the 2015 and 2016 All-African Games, Men's Singles. In 2017, his three-peat was interrupted by Nigerian table tennis player, Quadri Aruna, who defeated Assar in the tournament final (3-4).

2018 ITTF African-Cup

Assar defeated Tunisian table tennis player Thameur Mamia (4-1) in the quarterfinals of the event. He then defeated Saheed Idowu in the semifinal (4-0). Finally, Assar defeated long-time rival Quadri Aruna in the final of the event in order to win his third African-Cup.

2020 Olympics

At the 2020 Summer Olympics, Assar finished 5th in the men's singles event after losing to China's Ma Long in the quarterfinals.^[4] He also competed in the men's team event and the mixed doubles.^[5]

As of August 2021, Omar is ranked 36th in the world in the ITTF world rankings. He reached his highest ranking of 16th in March 2016.^[6]