Nigeria and Africa No.1, Quadri Aruna’s run at the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships has come to an end after succumbing to a 4-2 defeat in the hands of Sweden’s Truls Moregard in the quarterfinals, but he’d take solace in reaching unchartered waters whilst inspiring the entire continent.
The 19-year-old Swedish sensation saw off Aruna in a six set thriller as he avenged his countryman Kristian Karlsson’s round of 16 defeat to Aruna.
Despite the elimination, Aruna remain the only African player in the WTT Championships to reach the quaterfinals.
Moregard won the first two sets 13-11 and 11-8 against the Nigerian ace.
Aruna fought back to claim the third set 11-2 but his Swedish opponent showed his dominance with an emphatic 11-4 win in the fourth set but the Nigerian rally back with 14-12 in the fifth set, before the fantastic teenager took the sixth set 11-7 to win the game.
The Swedish sensation will meet Germany’s Timo Boll in the semi-final later on Sunday.
Aruna Quadri on being the first African to reach the QF: “It will motivate them, when Toriola got to R32 in Olympics, it motivated a lot of us, I was in QF in Rio, Omar was also motivated, he did the same in Tokyo. What I did here [others] can do better.”
MOLATsportgist 