As 21-year-old Olajide Omotayo will this month makes his debut at the major ITTF World Tour in Budapest, Hungary by drawing inspiration from the exploits of Aruna Quadri at global stage.
Omotayo, who made his senior debut with the Nigerian team at the 2016 ITTF African Championship in Morocco, believes playing alongside Segun Toriola and Quadri would inspire him in Budapest.
“Aruna Quadri has a big influence on me and I must say I watch his matches often and learn how he plays with top players in the world. Seeing Aruna Quadri’s performance gives me hope and also triggers me to always believe in myself,” he added.
Explaining his feeling before the Hungarian Open, Omotayo said: “I really feel happy and motivated being my first ITTF Tour outside Nigeria because this is a breakthrough for me and a chance to compete with top players in the world as well as to improve my ranking, skills and gain more experience which i think is all I need to become a top player.”
He added: “Apart from the three World Tours I had already confirmed my participation but I am still planning to attend more if possible. I believe my participation in this competition will help me and getting good result and stepping up in the game remains my target. In the Nigerian team, there are so many good players and I know it is really going to be a hard one as I count myself lucky to be in the team which has the combination of experience of Segun Toriola and youthfulness of Aruna Quadri. I want to do everything possible to retain my place in the team my spot by attending World Tours and training harder and harder.”
Explaining his 2017 targets, he said: “Actually I am currently ranked 600 in the world which saddens me whenever I go through the ITTF ranking page but at the same time it means I still have a long way to go. I know that the likes of Segun Toriola and Aruna Quadri started like this and having such people around me motivates me that impossible is nothing. All I need is to remain focus and keep fit always and with hard work success is sure.
His immediate target at the Hungarian Open is to quality from the preliminary round and hoping to advance more from there.