Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna, on Sunday scaled through the first hurdle at the ongoing World Table Tennis (WTT) Cup Finals in Singapore, by recording a record 3-1 (7-11, 11-1, 14-12, 11-5) win over world’s number eight Liang Jingkun of China in the round of 16 of the men’s singles to advance to the quarter-finals of the competition.
Aruna is playing in Singapore on the back of an historical outing at the world championships in Houston where he became the first African to reach the quarter finals of the world table tennis championships and the first African to rise to 13th in the world.
Going into the match, the highest ranked African player trailed Jingkun 0-2 on head to head from losses to the Chinese at the 2018 Korean Open and the World Team Cup in 2019 but Aruna successfully got his pound of flesh early on Sunday morning.
ALSO READ: Aruna sets African record, ranked 13th world’s best
“I kept fighting and I did not give up. I tried my best and it worked out for me in the end. I also think it’s my positive mindset that made me do well too.
“I’m very excited, I think I’m just so lucky in this match, everyone is so tired after the championships in Houston and I can see he [Liang] is tired also. I kept my cool, and it actually worked for me. I put several balls to the table and he made a lot of errors,” Aruna was quoted as saying by ITTF-Africa Media.
Regardless of being a lone ranger in the draws in Singapore, Aruna is not fazed by the absence of physical support; instead he continues to draw motivation from the huge support he gets back home in Nigeria and from fans around the world.
“This win is for all my fans and everyone back home in Nigeria and Africa.
ALSO READ: Aruna sets African record, ranked 13th world’s best
“I always believed that If I was selected to be here that means I’ve what it takes to play, I was not under any kind of pressure, I just wanted to play my game and be myself,” Aruna, the first African to play in the quarter-final of the Olympics [Rio 2016] said.
The Nigerian legend will face Brazil’s Hugo Calderano in quarter-final after the Brazilian beat China’s Lin Gaoyuan 3-0 in round of 16.
