Africa’s flagbeaerers at the 2017 ITTF World Cup, Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and Egypt’s Omar Assar yesterday cruised to the second round of the prestigious tournament holding in Liege, Belgium.
Despite losing one of their group matches, Quadri and Assar will now compete against the eight top seeded players in the second round (last 16) of the $150,000 prize money tournament.
Quadri narrowly lost his first group match to Korea’s Lee Sangsu 4-3 despite leading 3-1, but the Polish Open champion restored his pride by working hard to beat American teenager – Kanak Jhan 4-2 to secure of the eight slots available in the first round.
Egypt’s Assar however started his campaign in Group C on a good note with a hard-fought 4-3 win over Belgium’s Cedric Nuytinck. Having gone down 3-1 against the homeboy, Assar recovered to beat the Belgian 4-3.
But in the second group match, Assar by whisker lost to Russia’s Alexander Shibaev 4-3 to finish second in the group. He however advanced to the second round of the competition.
With the qualification for the knockout stage, Quadri has erased the memory of his first round exit in 2016.
The Nigerian put up a good fight against the Korean but few errors in the final game may have caused his loss to the Asian star.
And against the young American, Quadri did not really start well but he raised his game when it mattered most to end the dream of the American at 4-2 (7-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-5).
Today, the knockout stage begins as the eight seeded players will enter the ring in their bid to clinch the $45,000 star prize for the eventual winner.
World and Olympic Champion, China’s Ma Long and former world number one, Germany’s Timo Boll will start their race for the another World Cup title in Belgium.