Aruna Quadri knocked out of World Table Tennis Championship

Africa’s No.1 one male Table Tennis player, Aruna Quadri, was shown the exit door at the World Table Tennis [WTT] championship in Doha on Friday.

Quadri, ranked 21st in the world was knocked out in the quarter-final by Yun-Ju Lin of Chinese Taipei who is ranked seventh in the world.

Quadri gave his best but his best was not enough to see him through in a close contest which he lost 3-1 (8-11, 9-11, 17-15, 9-11). Though he lost out to the more fancied and better-ranked Lin, the 32-year-old Nigeria set a record of being the first African to play in the quarter of WTT.

On his way to the quarter-final, he defeated the newly-crowned Indian national champion Sathiyan Gnanasekaran 3-0 (11-7,11-4, 11-8) in the first round of the men’s singles at the WTT Contender Series.

He also defeated Portugal’s Joao Geraldo 3-2 (12-10, 12-10, 4-11, 11-6) before bowing out in the quarter-final of the $200,000 WTT tournament.

The Nigerian will be hoping to qualify for the Olympic Games during the World Singles qualification tournament at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiya Arena in Doha, Qatar between March 14-17 2021.

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Three spots will be available in stage one in the men’s singles qualification tournament with entries to be split into three knockout rounds, starting from the round of 32, with the winner of each knockout round qualifying for the singles event at the Tokyo Olympics.

Meanwhile, Nigerian trio of Funke Oshonaike, Olajide Omotayo and Offiong Edem have booked a place at the Tokyo Olympics coming up later in the year.