TABLE TENNIS

Nigeria’s Quadri finishes in top 16 at ITTF World Tour in Spain
For the first time in recent time, Nigeria made its presence at the 
International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF)-sanctioned World tagged 
Spanish Open after Aruna Quadri fought hard to be among the top 16 in 
the men’s singles of the championship.
  Besides being unseeded, Quadri fought his way from the preliminary 
rounds to make it to the main draw even in his quest he had to defeat 
homeboys in the presence of their fans.
  From the qualifying round, Quadri won all his matches against players 
from Jersey and Spain to join the 32 qualifiers that will battle the 
seeded players in the main draw.
  Fortunately, he was drawn against his first round opponent at the 2012 
London Olympics, Spain’s Carlos Machado, who is also ranked in top 90 
in the world.
  Despite being one of the biggest movers in the March ITTF ranking, 
Quadri is rated 197 in the world.
  But undeterred by what ranking read, Quadri made nonsense of the 
Spaniard winning the encounter at 11-6, 6-11, 9-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-9 to 
progress to the last 32.
  Again the Portugal-based Nigerian was set up against another European 
in the last 32, where he met with France’s Mehdi Bouloussa.
  But this turned to be the easiest win for the Nigerian as he wasted no 
time to bundle out the Frenchman in a match that ended 11-5, 11-7, 
12-10, 11-6 (4-0) to become the first Nigerian in recent time to play in 
the last 16 of any ITTF World Tour this year.
    But in the round of 16 game against one of the seeded players, 
Japan’s Masataka Morizono, Quadri could not withstand the pace of the 
Japanese as he fully surrendered to the Asian.
  The match went the way of the Japanese at 11-6, 11-7, 11-7, 12-10.
  Also in the men’s doubles, the pair of Quadri and Kazeem Makanjuola 
also made history by qualifying from the preliminary to play in the main 
draw. Although they eventually lost in the main draw (round of 16) to 
Chinese Taipei but they won crucial matches against Denmark and France.
  The performance of Nigeria will surely improve Quadri and Makanjuola 
world ranking in May.
  For Quadri, making it to the round of 16 was an indication that with 
more competitions, he can be among the best in the world.
  He however, admitted that he had to be at his best to win most of his 
matches at the Spanish Open.