Aruna Quadri
Quadri Aruna Knocked Out Of ITTF World Cup After Two Defeats
Quadri Aruna, the first African table tennis player to reach the quarter-finals of the ITTF World Cup, was expected to take things a step further this year, but that expectation was cut short on Wednesday, April 17.
During his game against Portugal’s Marcos Freitas on Wednesday, Aruna looked like a player who would go all the way. The 35-year-old table tennis star started strong against the Portuguese but failed to maintain the momentum. Hence, he lost 3-1 (12-10, 11-9, 11-9, 3-11).
Before his defeat against Freitas, the Nigerian star had suffered a massive 4-0 defeat against Daniel Gonzalez of Croatia on Tuesday. He was expected to win his next game following the defeat, but that couldn’t happen.
Quadri Aruna will now hope that his two back-to-back defeats at the ITTF World Cup won’t unseat him as the best table tennis player in Africa.
While Aruna failed to win any game at the tournament, Egypt’s Omar Assar is making good progress as he defeated Swedish national champion Truls Moregardh 3-1 (15-13, 9-11, 11-6, 11-5).
Before the big victory over the European star, Assar was also at his best when he defeated Noshad Alamiyan of Iran 4-0. The Egyptian finished the group stage as the winner of Group 16 and qualified for the next round of the competition,, earning the overall winner $1 million in the men’s singles.
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