Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and Edem Offiong secured their spots in the 
main draw of the ongoing International Table Tennis Federation 
(ITTF)-sanctioned World Tour tagged Spanish Open after advancing from 
the preliminary round of the competition.
  For Quadri, it was a dream come true as he will be playing in his 
first main draw of any ITTF World Tour after the Portugal-based finished 
top in Group 10 of the preliminary round.
  Quadri, who had featured in two World Tours earlier this year in 
Kuwait and Qatar failed to advance to the last 64 of these tournaments 
finally achieved his dream of playing in the main draw of Spanish Open 
after a resounding 4-0 bashing of homeboy – Spain’s Carlos Franco.
  Although, the last meeting between Quadri and the Spaniard was at the 
European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) Cup this year but it was the Nigerian 
that won at 3-2.
  However, Quadri was not deterred with the home support that his 
opponent got during the encounter as he ensured that the match was 
beyond the reach of the Spaniard.
  Without wasting much efforts and with the intention of playing in the 
main draw, Quadri ended the encounter at 11-4, 11-4, 11-5, 12-10 (4-0) 
to join the seeded players in the main draw which serves off on Friday.
  Before the victory against the Spaniard, Quadri had late on Wednesday 
accounted the routing of Jersey’s Joshua Band in a match that ended 
11-5, 11-1, 11-4, 11-4 (4-0) in favour of the Nigerian.
  Prior to his return to the ITTF World Tour this year, Quadri first 
attempt in the competition was in 2010 when he could not even progress 
beyond the preliminary stage. But his years of toiling came to an end at 
the 2014 Spaniard Open as he is expected to rub shoulders with rated 
players in the main draw of the championship holding in city of Almeria.
  Offiong, who is also making her debut at the ITTF World Tour had to be 
at her best to finish second in Group Seven behind Russia’s Yulia 
Prokhorova.
  Offiong had late on Wednesday lose 12-2, 8-11, 11-6, 11-6, 11-9 (4-1) 
to the Russian but on Thursday, she ensured that her debut did not end 
early as she fought well to beat England’s Hannah Kicks 14-12, 7-11, 
7-11, 11-5, 12-10, 6-11, 11-5 (4-3) in her second match of the group to 
make the last 64 of the championship.
  In the main draw, Offiong will face a Herculean task, as she will 
battle the competition’s number two seed, Japan’s Sayaka Hirano on 
Friday on table seven.
  Unlike Quadri that made to the main draw in the men’s singles, 
Makanjuola’s good start in the competition came to a sudden end on 
Thursday after he bowed to Spain’s Alfredo Carneros in the second 
group game that ended 13-11, 8-11, 15-13, 9-11, 11-6, 11-6 (4-2).
  Also the Nigeria’s duo – Quadri and Makanjuola still has a date to 
keep on Friday against Denmark’s pair of Mikkel Hindesson and Kasper 
Sternberg in the men’s doubles.
  But the woes of Ganiat Olatunde-Aruna continued in the women’s 
singles as she lost all her three matches in the preliminary round to 
exit the event.
  However, Olatunde-Aruna will partner Offiong to confront Chinese 
Taipei’s Hsin Huang and Hsing-Yin Liu in the women’s doubles.