ITTF Swedish Open: Quadri creates upset, beats no. 5 seed

Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna on Thursday created a major upset at the ongoing at the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Swedish Open in Stockholm, when he moved to the next round of the competition.
Quadri, with a never-say-die attitude bundle number five seed Hong Kong’s Wong Chun Ting out of the men’s singles event 4-2.
The Oyo State-born Quadri won the opening three games, (11-7, 11-4, 11-8) before Ting, mounted a most spirited recovery 6-11, 2-11, while he {Quadri} rallied to 11-6 victory in the last game.
“Early in the match he made mistakes; after the third game the match changed, he stopped missing, stopped making errors. I was fine receiving service; from the start of the fourth game, he served short most of the time.
“He {Ting} won the fourth and fifth games, in the sixth game I was down 0-5; I just kept fighting, fighting and fighting. I had played him in the Ultimate League in India and lost two-one. Today he understood how I play. The fact he fought back shows that he is a better player than me; he’s a really high class opponent,” an elated Quadri told www.ittf.com.
Quadri, who became the first African to play in the quarter-final of the Olympics {at Rio 2016}, will on Friday face Marcos Freitas of Portugal in the second round.
Number 14 seed, Freitas, had recovered from a 0-2 game deficit to end the dream of Denmark’s Zhai Yujia (9-11, 5-11, 11-4, 11-8, 9-11, 11-3, 11-6).
It will be recalled, that Quadri, after he was drawn bye in the first elimination round defeated Hong Kong’s Kit Kwan Ho 4-2 to qualify for the main draw of the men’s singles.

Meanwhile, Benedikt Duda also on Thursday created another upset when he defeated Japan’s Yuya Oshima 4-2.
Duda who beat the number 14 seed opponent, right-handed Yuya (13-11, 10-12, 11-6, 11-8, 10-12, 11-6) will on Friday face Fan Zhendong in the second round.
Fan spanked top seed Jang Woojin of Korea (11-1, 11-6, 11-3, 11-9) to advance in the ITTF competition.