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By Rasaq Oboirien
Africa’s top-ranked table tennis star, Aruna Quadri was dealt a first-round blow by Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yun-Ju at the World Table Tennis Global Championship in Xinxiang, China.
Quadri made history by becoming the first African to qualify for the quarterfinal of the WTT Singapore Smash, beating world No. 4 Tomokazu Harimoto in the men’s singles round of 16 events 3-0 (11-7, 13-11, 11-7), was hoping to create another upset in Xinxiang on Sunday.
It was not to be, as the Nigerian ping-pong sensation was beaten by the World No.10 in three straight sets (11-2,11-9,11-7) in the Men’s Singles Round of 32 at the Pingyuan Sports Centre.
The tie between Yun-Ju and Quadri went full throttle as both stars displayed brilliant ping-pong skills to the delight of fans.
Meanwhile, Quadri should shake off from the loss as he has been awarded a wildcard to be part of the 48 players expected to compete in the men’s singles for the WTT Star Contender Bangkok from April 23rd to 29th.
In the list of wildcards and WTT nominations released yesterday for the $250,000 prize money tournament, Aruna ranked 11th in the world will be joined by South Korea’s Lim Jonghoon while Slovenia’s Darko Jorgic and Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov will compete as WTT Nominees.
Being the second WTT Star Contender event of the year with 600 World Ranking points, Aruna has received a direct entry into the main draw of the championships.
