The 31-year-old player has moved up from 30th to 22nd place in the June ranking released on Thursday.

Assar made history at the South Africa World Championship, becoming the first Egyptian player to reach the quarterfinals of the World tournament.

He began his campaign with a hard-fought 4-3 win over Alberto Mino of Ecuador, followed by a 4-2 victory over Kirill Gerassimenko of Kazakhstan in the round of 64.

The Egyptian player then stunned world number 10 Truls Moregard of Sweden 4-2 in the round of 32 on Wednesday, but slumped to a logic defeated by world No. 1 Fan Zhendong of China in the quarterfinals.

Assar’s place at the World Championship quarterfinals saw him join Nigerian player Quadri Aruna, who became the first African player to reach this stage in the 2021 edition held in Houston, USA.

This isn't the first time that Assar has made history on international level.

He also impressed at the 2020 Olympic Games by becoming the first Egyptian table tennis player to advance to the quarterfinals in the event.

The player finished fifth in the men's singles event in Tokyo 2020 after losing 4-1 to the 2016 Olympic gold medalist and 2019 World Champion Ma Long of China in the quarterfinals.

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