Nigeria’s leading men’s table tennis player, Aruna Quadri pulled off another sensational feat at the ongoing African championship in Tunisia by beating the continent’s current number one player, Assar Oman of Egypt, and lead the way for other victories by many of his compatriots, megasportsarena.com reports.
Quadri, who is the highest-ranked African player of the moment, paved way for heroics from the duo of male colleague, Olajide Omotayo and female compatriot, Offiong Edem, as they all won their first games at the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Africa Top 16 Cup in Tunis.
The three-day event ends Wednesday in the Sports Hall of Rades, with 31 players participating, comprising of 16 male and 15 female grouped into four in both categories of the singles event, in which Aruna started by first defeating Adam Hmam of Tunisia 3-0 (11-5, 14-12, 11-4).
The world number 18-ranked player then cruised over Algeria’s Sami Kherouf and Oba Kizito Oba of Cote d’Ivoire, while Omotayo came up strong after an early scare in his first game against Gedeon Kassa of Democratic Republic of Congo in Group 3.
The Congolese took the first set 11-8, but an incredible comeback surge from Omotayo saw him claim victory in the last three sets to eventually win 11-6, 11-3, 11-7; after which he moved on to face Senegal’s Ibrahima Diaw and Algeria’s Larbi Bouriah to determine quarter-final berths.
Quadri then avenged a 4-0 loss Omotayo suffered at the hands of Assar in the semi-final, as he romped back from two games down to beat the Egyptian in a keenly contested tie on Tuesday and book a spot in the 2020 ITTF Africa Cup final.
The Portugal-based Nigerian professional ping-pong star, who was facing Assar for the 16th time in their storied rivalry, lost the first two games by 5-11, 6-11 before winning the next two games 11-4 and 14-12 for a 2-2 tie.
Assar, who has a superior head-to-head record of nine wins over the Nigerian star, was on the verge of making it 10, after taking the fifth game 11-7, but Quadri dug deep to secure 11-6 and 12-10 wins in the next two sets and seal a seventh overall victory against his main rival, while also booking a place in Wednesday’s final.
In the female category, Edem dismissed Safa Saidani 3-1 (8-11, 11-9, 11-7,11-6) in her first game of Group 2, after which the 33-year-old then eased past South African Simeen Mookrey 3-1 (11-3, 8-11, 11-3, 11-7) in her second group game, before facing Christy Bristol of Seychelles, but she soon fell by the way side, while Olufunke Oshonaike later lost the women’s singles final 4-0 to Dina Meshref of Egypt.
Meshref will represent Africa at this year’s ITTF World Cups later in the year for the women and the men will have Quadri, who earlier conquered Egypt’s Mohamed El-Beiali 4-0 in the quarter-final and showed class to beat Assar 4-3 in the semi-final to the admiration of all at the venue.
Quadri said after his pulsating historic win: “I am so happy and I think luck was in my favour and I look forward to play in the ITTF World Cup later this year in France.”
