Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri – The Nation Newspaper

ETTU Champions League: Quadri, Portugal’s Freitas renew rivalry in Lisbon

Less than one week after suffering humiliating 4-0 defeat in the hand of Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri, Portugal’s Marcos Freitas will be hoping to avenge the loss when both players on Thursday November 23, lead their teams in the European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) Champions League.

It was Quadri who laughed last when both players clashed in the round of 16 of the just concluded Swedish Open and again they will be aiming for each other in order to secure their places in the quarterfinal stage of the ETTU Champions League.

In the first leg away to Pontoise Cergy in France, Quadri was beaten 3-1 by Freitas but it was Quadri’s team – Sporting that claimed a 3-1 win.

As the captains of Sporting and Pontoise Cergy, all eyes will be on Quadri and Freitas in the crucial encounter holding in Lisbon.

Quadri remains the only African to have featured in the lucrative ETTU Champions League and he hopes to lead Sporting to their first qualification to the last eight of the competition.

According to ETTU, the Group A brings a do-or-die clash for double winner of the league, France’s Pontoise Cergy having recorded two loses and one win, Freitas travels to his homeland Portugal to face newcomer Sporting, which has two wins and one loss.

Portugal`s side upset French club in the opening round, 3:1, thanks to Joao Monteiro who provided two wins, beating Can Akuzzu and Freitas in the decider.

In other Group A game, Poland’s Bogoria, who are yet to record a victory in their three matches hosts defending champion – Russia’s Orenburg, who are yet to drop any match and they are also very close to their 8th consecutive quarter-final.

So far, there are three clubs unbeaten so far in the competition and they are reigning champion and four times winner Russia’s Orenburg, 2009 runner-up Germany’s Ochsenhausen and 2012 semi-finalist, Germany’s Saarbrucken.

Ochsenhausen`s no. 1 Frenchman Simon Gauzy, ranked no 8 in the world holds the best individual score after first three rounds. Frenchman won all his five encounters (5-0), followed by two Orenburg`s players Japan’s Jun Mizutani (4-0), Vladimir Samsonov (3-0) and two members of Saarbrucken, Tiago Apolonia (3-0) and Patrick Franziska (3-0).

November 22, 2017

Japan spies on Quadri in Belgium

As the host of the 2020 Olympic Games, Japan is doing everything possible to ensure that any player that might stand between them and the titles at Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games is well studied.

This has confirmed series of enquiries being made by various Japanese media on Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri at the just concluded ITTF World Cup in Belgium.

In the last six months, Quadri had defeated five Japanese who are members of the Japanese national team in his quest to win major matches at the 2017 Bulgaria and Polish Opens.

At the Bulgaria Open, Quadri came from 3-1 down to beat Yuto Kizukuri 4-3 (8-11, 7-11, 12-10, 4-11, 11-9, 13-11, 11-9) in men’s singles second round.

As if that was a tip of the iceberg, Quadri went further to edge out another Japanese star – Asuka Machi 4-1 (11-3, 6-11, 11-3, 12-10, 11-6) in the quarterfinal stage.

To be crowned the 2017 Polish Open champion, it was another Japanese sensation – Kaii Yoshida that suffered defeat in the hands of Quadri. In an explosive final at the Polish Open, the Nigerian beat the southpaw Japanese 4-2 11-7, 11-13, 11-8, 6-11, 11-8, 14-12) to win his first ITTF title outside Africa and the player from the continent achieve such feat.

From electronic media to print, the enquiries about Quadri continued to grow each as NationSport has been bombarded with series of information regarding the Nigerian star.

However, confirming this to NationSport in Liege, Belgium, the Publisher/ Editor-in-Chief of Tokyo-based World Table Tennis Magazine, Noboru Konno said the enquires became necessary as most Japanese are still stunned about the skills and talents being displayed by Aruna Quadri globally.

“I must be sincere with you that most Japanese are still surprised that an African can be that good in table tennis that he commands followership globally. The only thing most Japanese knew about African athletes is their prowess in football but for an African to be that good to be beating some of the respected Japanese stars is still a misery to them. That is why all these enquiries are vital to them in order to know their possible threat to claim medals at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo,”he said.

Konno, who also conducted an exclusive interview with Quadri in Belgium, said the Nigerian star has become a phenomenon in the sport with his ferocious forehand which most times confused his opponents.

October 23, 2017

2017 ITTF World Cup: Quadri, Assar breeze into second round

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.

October 21, 2017

Quadri, Assar get opponents for ITTF World Cup

Africa’s representatives at the 2017 ITTF World Cup, Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and Egypt’s Omar Assar will today know their group opponents in the $150,000 prize money.

The draw for the three-day tournament holds today at the Country Hall in Liège ahead of the kick off tomorrow.

Quadri is seeded 14while Assar is listed 11^th on the seeding list. There are possibilities that Quadri and Assar may be drawn in same group based on the format of tournament.

Being the first time Africa will be presenting two players for the competition, Quadri and Assar will be hoping to set new records at the tournament as Quadri remains the only African to have played in the quarterfinal of the 38-year-old tournament.

Among the 20 players that will contest at the World Cup comprise the current World Champion, while 17 players qualified through their respective Continental Cups. The remaining two players include host and a wildcard entry.

According to the format of the World Cup, the tournament consists of two stages. In the first stage, the players seeded nine to 20 (12 players) are drawn into four equal groups of three players, with all members of a group playing each other.

Players seeded 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th head each group A, B, C and D respectively, while players seeded 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th are drawn randomly into the second position of each preliminary group. The remaining players seeded 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th are drawn randomly into the third and last position in each preliminary group.

The top two finishers of each preliminary group shall join the top eight seeded players in the second stage of the competition. The stage two is on knockout basis.

The 2017 World Cup is the 38th edition and is the 4th edition that Belgium will host the championships while the oldest competitor is Germany’s Timo Boll, who is 36 years old. The youngest is United States’ Kanak Jha, who is 17, a difference of 19 years and there are no defensive or penhold players in this year’s edition of the championship.

October 18, 2017

ITTF Ranking: Aruna Quadri ends 2016 on 25th spot

Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri maintained his status for three consecutive months as world number 25 in the December ITTF World Ranking released yesterday by the world table tennis ruling body.
With just one point, Quadri garnered in his second exit at the Austrian Open, the 2014 ITTF Star Player now has 2446 from 2445 he had in November 2016.
With this, he ends 2016 as the highest ranked African player in the world, while his continental rival – Egypt’s Omar Assar moved four steps up the ranking ladder, as the ITTF African Senior Championships winner is now rated 45th from 49th in November.
Seven-time Olympian, Segun Toriola remains the third best African despite dropping from 101 to 106 in the latest ranking.
Bode Abiodun also dropped from 175 to 196 in the November ranking to become the fifth best African player in the world.
In the women ranking, African champion, Olufunke Oshonaike may have dropped to 209 from 206 in the world, but she held on as the third best ranked female African player in the world as Egypt’s Dina Meshref and Nadeen El-Dawlatly held onto the top two spots in the continent despite sliding in the latest ranking.
Meanwhile, China’s Ma Long and Ning Ding held on as the best players in the men and women ranking. Despite their inactiveness in the last two months, Long and Ding remain the highest rated players in the world. The top three spots in the men and women ranking are still being dominated by the Chinese.

December 1, 2016

2016 Men’s World Cup: ITTF confirms Quadri

Rio 2016 Olympic Games quarterfinalist, Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri will return to the country where his resurgence started in 2014, as the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has confirmed the Nigerian and 19 others for this year’s Men’s World Cup holding in Saarbrucken, which is the largest city in the state of Saarland Germany.

Saarbrücken which is Saarland’s administrative, commercial and cultural centre will host the best 20 players in the world with Quadri flying African flag at the three-day tournament.

Quadri, who returned to his base in Portugal at the weekend, will rub shoulders with top European stars as well as his conqueror in Brazil and Olympic Champion, China’s Ma Long.

In the list of participants made available to NationSport yesterday by the world table tennis ruling body, Quadri – German fans favourite will return to the warm welcome in Germany where he berthed in the quarterfinal stage in the same tournament in 2014.

The whole world will focus attention on the competition as most of the players have earned their place at the show piece event through Continental Cup qualification events throughout 2016, plus the current World Champion & a wildcard.

China’s newly crowned Olympic Champion and Men’s World Cup defending Champion MA Long heads the invitation list as the reigning World Champion, together with 2013 Champion XU Xin (CHN), and three time champion, 40-year-old Vladimir SAMSONOV (BLR).

World number five Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER) will lead the local German contingent in Saarbrucken alongside Bastin STEGER (GER), the man he won the Rio 2016 team bronze with.

Jun MIZUTANI (JPN) who played the tournament of his life to win singles bronze and team silver at Rio 2016 will also be making the trip to Germany. MIZUTANI will be hoping to repeat his victory over XU Xin at Rio 2016 to bring home another medal to Japan.

Based on his brilliant performance at Rio 2016, where he became extremely close to beating both Grand Slam Champions MA Long and ZHANG Jike (CHN), JEONG Youngsik (KOR) takes the wildcard place.

August 23, 2016

Quadri is Africa’s pride at Rio – ATTF

The continent is still celebrating the feat achieved by Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri at the ongoing Rio 2016 Olympic Games, President of African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), Khaled El-Salhy believes the 2014 ITTF Star Player is a pride to Africa in Brazil.

He added that the heroic performance of Aruna Quadri is a confirmation of Africa’s relevance in global table tennis.

“I must admit that all the African players did their best in the singles, while the extra ordinary outcome was through Aruna Quadri for his superb performance against the top ITTF ranked players like Chinese Taipei’s CHUANG Chih-Yuan and Germany’s Timo BOLL. In my opinion the achievement of Aruna Quadri in Rio will be of great impact to Africa and all players as well as help to break all barriers, raising the ceiling of ambitious player at all World and Olympic title events regardless of their opponents,” the ATTF boss said.

He added: “Simply, Aruna Quadri is perfect, full of energy and trust his skills with good preparation. He also put his mind in the game to fly the flag of Nigeria and Africa in such Olympic Games.”

On what young players can emulate from Quadri, he said: “They have to follow the foot step of Aruna Quadri in terms of preparation, dedication in training and with this nothing is impossible.”

August 11, 2016

Quadri’s forehand and footwork are great- Ma Long

Knowing the importance of ending the fine run of Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri means a lot to his ambition at the ongoing Rio 2016 Olympic Games, world number one and champion, China’s Ma Long has admitted that what stood the Nigerian out were his superb forehand and footwork.

Having studied Aruna Quadri with the help of the Chinese technical crew led by Liu Guoliang, the head coach of the Chinese Men’s Team, Ma Long was able to demystify the Nigerian in an entertaining encounter that thrilled the Brazilian fans.

From the start of the quarterfinal encounter, Ma Long did not allow Quadri to make any attempt at using his forehand and with aggressiveness; Ma Long overcame Quadri 11-4, 11-2, 11-6, 11-7 to secure a place in the semifinal where he is expected to battle Japan’s Jun Mizutani.

A relief Ma Long who is featuring in his first singles event at the Olympic Games admitted, “As an African player, it’s not easy that he made it to the quarterfinals stage. He was able to defeat CHUANG Chih-Yuan and Timo BOLL on his way to the quarterfinals also shows he’s strong and skillful.”

On what he thinks were Quadri’s strengths that helped him caused upsets, Ma Long said: “His forehand and footwork are great. I think also because he doesn’t play much internationally, so we are not familiar with his playing style and characteristics. That could have surprised his opponents, and they couldn’t react and adapt in time.”

August 10, 2016

Rio Olympics: Aruna Quadri sets African record

*** qualifies for quarter final

Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri on Monday night emerged as the first African ever to make it to the quarter finals of the men’s single table tennis event at the Olympics.

Quadri, in a thrilling encounter, beat his German opponent, Boll Timo, 4-2 to seal a historic berth in the quarter finals of men’s single table tennis event.

Before Monday’s win, Quadri was only at par with legend, Segun Toriola, who at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in China, made it to the fourth round of the championship.

After an awesome display on Sunday in which Quadri caused a major upset in Round 3, beating Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chih-Yuan 4-0 , many knew it would be suicidal to bet against the Nigerian who seemed to have hit his peak at the right time at the Olympics.

In 10 minutes, Quadri blew away his German opponent, winning the first three sets 12-10 12-10, 12-5.

However, German star, Boll who is ranked number 10 in Rio, halted Quadri’s run as he took the 4th set and 5th set 11-3, 11-5.

In the keenly contested 6th set, Quadri held his nerve to win 11-9 and thus entered into the history books as the first African table tennis player to go this far.

August 9, 2016

ITTF pledges support to Nigeria, others

As tournament ends

With the progressed made by Nigeria and others in Africa, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has pledged its support to the continent just as the 2016 ITTF African Junior & Cadet Championship ends today in Algiers.

Impressed with the giant strides made by Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and Egypt’s Omar Assar, ITTF President, Thomas Weikert that the performance of the stars has motivated the world table tennis ruling body to look towards Africa and see ways to assist them in developing the sport.

The ITTF boss told NationSport during an exclusive interview at the weekend that Nigeria and Egypt have become what Germany and China are to the world table tennis in terms of their quality and efforts by their national associations at improving the fortune of the sport.

“I must tell you that I am familiar with Nigerian players having played alongside the likes of Sunday Eboh, Thomas Ogunrinde and Titus Omotara as well as Olawunmi Majekodunmi, I knew their quality and with what Aruna Quadri is doing now, it shows that the national association is not relenting in its efforts to groom new players. Also Egypt is like the China of Africa with what they have achieved at the global level.

“I think they just need to support other countries in the continent just like China is doing at global level. At ITTF we will continue to support Africa to grow the game as well as to engage more women in the development of the sport. As Nigeria and Egypt are the best playing nations in Africa, they must not look down on other nations but see how they can support them and that is where ITTF will not come in to aid the support,” Weikert said.

The ITTF helmsman who watched the cadet boys final involving Nigeria and Egypt in Algiers believes with the quality of the youngsters, the future of the game in Africa is secured, while calling on other African nations to take a cue from Nigeria and Egypt.

Meanwhile, the seven-day championship in Algiers will climax today with the finals of the singles event in U-21, junior and cadet categories.

April 11, 2016

Tag: Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri