Quadri Aruna is one win away from playing his first play-off in the Table Tennis Bundesliga after the Nigerian led TTC RhönSprudel Fulda-Maberzell to third spot in the German elite league.
Aruna who has been unbeaten in the last four matches became the match-winner for TTC in their 3-0 bashing of their host – Bad Königshofen, who had won the first leg at 3-2 late last year.
But on Sunday, it was the German international Fan Bo Meng who opened the win for TTC after a stunning 3-2 win over his compatriot Kilian Ort.
French international Alexandre Cassin was regarded as the favourite when he was set up against Czech’s Filip Zeljko but things changed as the Czech nearly scuttled the match for TTC but Cassin recovered on time to end the tie at 3-2 to give the visitors a 2-0 lead.
It was the turn of experienced Aruna and German international Bastian Steger to settle their score after the German stunned the Nigerian 3-0 in the first leg.
Aware of what was at stake in the match, Aruna took control from the start and he dictated the pace of the match to take a 2-0 lead. But the clever German fought back to win the third game to put the match at 2-1.
In the fourth game, Aruna started well and was coasting home to victory when Steger fought back to level up at 10-10 but a determined Aruna gained an upper hand in the last two points to put the game beyond his opponent to seal the 3-1 (12-10, 11-8, 7-11, 12-10) victory for TTC in their overall 3-0 away win.
Prior to the match, Bad Königshofen had developed into a feared opponent for TTC in the recent past, but on Sunday Aruna and his teammates broke the myth by asserting a 3-0 on matchday 18 of the TTBL and thus won the Franconian-Hessian derby for the first time after three defeats for more than two years.
TTC defended their third-place spot and are still two points ahead of Post SV Mühlhausen (22:12), who also won 3:0 at TTC OE Bad Homburg.
“It was very competitive, very close,” said Fan Bo Meng after the game. “After two games it could have been 0:2. We’re all the happier that we won.”
He described Aruna’s performance as outstanding. “But that shouldn’t detract from Aruna’s performance, he played very well,” admitted Steger.