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

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.

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