Africa‘s sole representative at the Liebherr 2018 ITTF Men’s WorldCup in Paris, Aruna Quadri has been knocked out of the tournament after losing his two matches in Group B on Friday to miss out in the last 16.
The golden boy of Nigeria table tennis lost his first match to Gauzy Simon of France 3-4 and the second match 2-4 to 18 year-oldAmerican Kanak Jha who bronze medal at the recent Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games.
It was the biggest upset of the day, as the young American Kanak Jha, who is seeded 18th, defeated the 14th seeded Portugal baseQuadri.
It would be recalled that Quadri defeated Jha in Lagos at the Seamaster 2018 ITTF Challenge Nigeria Open, in six games thriller(11-7, 11-9, 8-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-9).
“Today was a bad day for me. That’s sport. I think I played a bit better in the first match. I knew that the second match would be very difficult and I didn’t start very well, making it an uphill battle”, Quadri said..
It’s an unbelievable atmosphere here and one of the best I’ve seen so far in the world. I think it’s a very good tournament. I’ll now be going back to my club in Portugal and will continue to train and work hard,” he added.
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