THE dream of the reigning African champion, Aruna Quadri to make a statement again in table tennis was dashed on Saturday as he crashed out of the 2016 ITTF World Cup in Saarbrucken, Germany.
Quadri, it will be recalled, at the just-ended Rio 2016, became the first African to play in the quarter-final of the Olympics after he had sent Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chih-Yuan and the world’s number 10, Timo Boll packing before losing to world’s number one, Ma Long of China.
However, the Nigerian now rated world’s number 27, who was the fans’ favourite in the hall failed to progress to the second round of the World Cup as he lost to the duo of Sweden’s Par Gerell and Singapore’s Ning Gao.
Quadri this time bowed to the aggressive and topspin service of the Swedish player, Gerell as the game ended 4-2, in what turned out to be a sweet revenge for the European who had earlier this year lost to the Nigerian at the 2016 German Open.
In the clash with Ning, Quadri, who was heavily supported by German fans as every point he won received a huge applause raced to a 2-0 lead, but the Commonwealth champion clinched three games in a row to takeover.
The Oyo State-born star fought back to level at 3-3, but a lot of forced errors in the seventh game gave his Asian opponent victory on 4-3.
According to the ITTF-Africa press release, Quadri blames his exit from the World Cup on ill-luck.
“I think I was just unlucky in this competition because I played very well in all the two matches. My inability to return my opponent’s service in the first game affected me, while the experience of my opponent in the second game was my undoing. This is another lesson for me and I will keep on working hard,” a disappointed Quadri said.
Meanwhile, one of his conquerors, Gerell said his game-plan worked out as planned.
“I tried to be more aggressive compared to our first meeting at German Open,” Gerrell said.
I also put a lot of spin into my service and put him under a lot of pressure. When it comes to forehand and rally, he is better than me. But I ensured I did not allow him to play his game. This win is very important because three of us in the group have equal chance to qualify from the group,” Gerrell said.
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