Sports

Rio : Quadri bows to world best Table Tennis star

Published

8 years ago

August 10, 2016

Table Tennis: Assar seeks revenge against Quadri

Nigeria and African champion, Aruna Quadri early Wednesday morning crashed out of the Rio Olympics after suffering a 4-0 defeat to China’s star and world number one Ma Long.

Playing in the Men’s Singles category Long, heads the top half of the semi-finals draw as the number one seed brought Quadri Aruna’s (27th) wonderful journey in the singles tournament to an end with a dominant victory (11-4, 11-2, 11-6, 11-7).

Ma looked in control of the tie from start to finish, and required less than 30 minutes to put his name into the last four.

“As an African player, it’s not easy that he made it to the quarterfinals stage. He was able to defeat Chuang Chih-Yuan and Timo Boll on his way to the quarter-finals also shows he’s strong and skillful.”

When asked about his opinion on where Aruna’s strengths lie, Ma gave the following answer “His forehand and footwork are great… I think also because he doesn’t play much internationally, so we are not familiar with his playing style and characteristics. That could have surprised his opponents, and they couldn’t react and adapt in time.”

Despite the disappointment of a 4-0 defeat, Aruna can look back on his singles campaign at Rio 2016 with fondness after producing dramatic upsets and capturing the fans’ support.

“Ma Long is so much better, so much more faster, everything is just perfect about Ma Long, his speed is just too much for me.”

Aruna followed up by saying that his dream of seeing a Nigerian player win a gold medal in Olympic Table Tennis could very much turn to reality one day, “I believe that it is possible, nothing is impossible to go there.”

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