Connect with us

Sports

Aruna exits WTT Contender series after quarter-final loss to Yun-Ju Lin

Published

on

Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri was knocked out of the World Table Tennis (WTT) Contender Series after losing 3-1 to Chinese Taipei’s Yun-Ju Lin.

Aruna was the only surviving African in the men’s singles before his loss, as he bowed out in the Doha tournament following a 3-1 defeat to Yun-Ju Lin.

Aruna who is ranked 21st in the world was set up against world number seven in the last-eight but did not concede defeat easily as he gave the Asian star a big fight.

Aruna’s powerful forehand most times confused his opponent but his inaccuracy in backhand became his undoing and this earned Lin win 8-11 in the first game.

Read Also: Aruna reaches quarter-finals at WTT, to face Chinese Taipei’s Yun-Ju Lin

Just like the first game, the second game was full of rallies and both players matched themselves shots for shots with the Asian star having an upper hand with 9-11 win.

In the third game, Aruna wanted to halt the run of his opponent that even when the match was at 10-8 in favour of the Asian, Aruna fought back to level the game at 10-10 with both players winning point by point but the Nigerian prevailed at 17-15 to put the match at 2-1.

The fourth game had all the ingredients of the others and Aruna was leading 6-4 but there was a turnaround as the game ended 9-11 in favour of Lin to completed a 3-1 win.

Despite the exit in the quarterfinal, Aruna has set a standard for African players to look beyond the quarterfinal at the WTT tournament.

The second tier of the WTT Middle East Hub ‘WTT Star Contender’ serves off on March 7 to end on 13th, with the preliminary involving the likes of Nigeria’s Olajide Omotayo and other African stars in their quest to join Aruna in the main draw.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now