The impressive run of Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna at the 2021 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships in Houston, US, ended on Saturday as he bowed 2-4 to Sweden’s Truls Moregard in the quarter-final of the men’s singles.
Aruna had set a new African record despite the loss as he became the first African to get to the round of 16 and the quarter-final of the global championship.
The Oyo State-born ping-ponger had defeated Swedish Kristian Karlsson 4-3 [11-9, 5-11, 13-11, 5-11, 6-11, 11-8, 11-6] in the round of 16 before Saturday’s loss.
However, Aruna bowed to enterprising 19-year-old Swede, Truls after falling behind in the first two games 4-2 (13-11, 11-8, 2-11, 11-4, 12-14, 11-7) to crash out of the competition.
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Moregard won the first two sets 13-11 and 11-8 while Aruna fought back to claim the third set 11-2 but his Swedish opponent regained dominance with an emphatic 11-4 win in the fourth set.
Aruna, who plays for TTC RhönSprudel Maberzell Fulda, a top club in the German Bundesliga rallied to a 14-12 victory in the fifth set, but the Swedish forced the game to be stopped after the sixth set with a 11-7 victory.
Aruna, who was also the first African to play in the quarter-final of the Olympics [Rio 2016] was not disappointed given his modest achievement at this year’s World Championships.
“I think I did very well, I gave my heart and soul but the last match was not meant to be.
“The first two sets were really important, we started like 50-50, the first set I was like 10-8 and I lost, the second set too I lost with almost the same margin. The two sets made the biggest difference but of course he [Truls] played amazingly,” Aruna, 2014 ITTF World Player of Year said.
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The 33-year-old Aruna believes his exploits at the ‘Houston 2021’ would motivate more players from the continent to perform better in subsequent editions.
“It will motivate them [younger players from Africa], you know when [Segun] Toriola got to the round of 32 at the Olympic Games, it motivated a lot of us, so I was in the quarter-final at ‘Rio 2016’, Egyptian Omar Assar was motivated and excited, he did the same at Tokyo 2020.
“Now what I did here, I am very sure Omotayo Ibrahim or Omar Assar can even do better,” an elated Aruna rated 19th best player in the world said according to the ITTF-Africa Press Release.
