After a not-too-impressive performance at the German Open, Aruna Quadri will be hoping to restore his pride when he begins campaign at the ITTF World Tour tagged Swedish Open which serves off on Tuesday November 13 in Stockholm, Sweden.
Despite being seeded 22 in the men’s singles, Quadri will start his campaigns from the preliminary round just like what happened at the German Open.
The Nigerian has been drawn in Group seven alongside Greece’s Ioannis Sgouropoulos and Sweden’s Alexander Franzen.
On Tuesday November 14 at noon, Quadri will battle the Greek on table two while his last group match will be against the Swedish on table five.
Already, Quadri has put the disappointment of the German Open behind him as he remain focus on progressing to the main draw where he is expected to be drawn against any of the top 16 players already seeded in the main draw.
Being the final ITTF World Tour for 2017, the players will be aiming for places in the 2017 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals, to be staged in Astana, Azerbaijan from Thursday 14th to Sunday 17th December.
There will be no African competing at the prestigious World Tour finals as Quadri and Egypt’s Omar Assar failed to make the cut for the tournament. Regardless of the performance of Quadri at Swedish Open, his points will not meet up with the requirement for the championship.
With the top eight players seeded at the Swedish Open already securing their places in the Grand Finale, Stockholm is the last stop on the calendar and it will decide the fate of other top players.
China’s Fan Zhendong and Xu Xin, are the respective top two seeds in the men’s singles and despite his recent semi-final defeat against Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov at the German Open, Fan Zhendong must be in a confident mood as he returns to Stockholm; in that city on three occasions he has reached the Men’s Singles final. In 2014 he overcame colleague Fang Bo, in 2015 he accounted for Xu Xin, whilst in the title deciding contest in 2013, he was beaten by Yan An, likewise from China.
Furthermore, he has a liking for Stockholm, he won in 2002 when the city hosted the prestigious event; the other winner is Xu Xin. He emerged successful in 2012 in Hangzhou and in early 2014 in Dubai.