African champion, Aruna Quadri has been handed a tricky draw in the first round of the ITTF Men’s World Cup holding in Liege, Belgium on October 20 to 22.
In the draw conducted yesterday, Quadri who is seeded number 14 will battle giant killing South Korea’s Lee Sangsu as well as the tournament’s youngest player – United States’ Kanak Jha in Group A of the championship.
Ranked 36 in the October ITTF world rating, Quadri will have his hands full against the Korean star, who has won two singles titles at the ITTF World Tour, and as at October 2017, he is ranked the sixteenth player in the world.
It would be recalled that the 27-year-old Korean recorded the biggest victory of his career at the 2017 World Championship in Dusseldorf, Germany after stunning former world and Olympic Champion, China’s Zhang Jike 11-9, 11-6, 11-13, 11-6, 12-10 in the third round of the men’s singles.
Apart from the victory over Zhan Jike, Lee Sangsu remains one of the players to have beaten current Olympic and World Champion, China’s Ma Long in any competition.
Unlike Lee Sangsu, American teenager, Kanak Jha who is making his second appearance at the World Cup might be ranked lower than Quadri but the youngster has the quality to turn the table against top players.
Jha became the first American born in 2000 to feature at the Olympic Games following his participation at the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.
The American told NationSport that his aim is to qualify from the group. “Being my second outing at the tournament, I am looking forward to advance from the group after my inability to make it during my debut in 2014. I know it is a very tall ambition considering the quality of players in the competition,” Jha said.
Africa’s second representative in the competition – Egypt’s Omar Assar is in group C alongside Russia’s Alexander Shibaev and Belgium’s Cedric Nuytinck.
From the four groups made of three players each, two top players from each group are expected to progress to the main draw where they will be drawn against the top eight players seeded for the championship.