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Aruna cruises into second round of WTT, to battle Portugal’s Geraldo

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Nigerian table tennis star, Quadri Aruna has advanced to the second round of the ongoing World Table Tennis (WTT) Tournament holding in Doha.

Aruna cruised past Indian national champion Sathiyan Gnanasekaran 3-0 (11-7, 11-4, 11-8) on Wednesday in a first-round clash of the men’s singles.

The win came as a surprise to the Indian superstar who had boasted of his readiness to send the Nigerian packing in the first round.

An elated Aruna described the win as awesome. “I am happy because everything seems to work well for me in the match. I had taken my time to study his game and everything I picked worked well for me in the encounter.”

Read Also: Aruna donates equipment worth N.75m to paralympians ahead Tokyo 2021

He added: “I am looking forward to the next match and I hope to approach every match with all seriousness,”Aruna said after the match.”

With the win, Aruna will now face a familiar face in Portugal’s Joao Geraldo who had a walk-over against Slovakia’s Yang Wang who was disqualified for breaking the COVID-19 protocol put in place by the organisers of the event.

Meanwhile, in the women’s singles, it was not a good outing for six-time African women champion Dina Meshref of Egypt as she was beaten by Korea Republic’s Hyowon Suh 3-1 (12-10, 8-11, 11-5, 11-5).

Meshref and Omar Assar are still in the race in the mixed doubles event of the championship.

The $200,000 prize money WTT Star Contender events will take place over six days while WTT Contender events will deliver four days of action, with each event featuring men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles competitions.

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