Nigeria’s poster boy in table tennis, Aruna Quadri, easily cruised into the quarter-final of the men’s singles at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Smash in Singapore, after an impressive win against world ranked no. 4 Japan’s Tomokazu Harimoto.
The African champion got the job presumed to be a tough test against the 19-year-old Japan’s sensation in straight sets 11-7, 13-11 and 11-7 to wrap up the match in less than 30 minutes at the Infinity Arena in the early hours of Thursday.
It could be recalled that the Nigerian had lost thrice to the highly-rated Japanese teenager before he broke the jinx today.
Aruna will now face the winner of the round of 16 fixture between Portugal’s Hugo Calderano and Darko Jorgic of Slovenia billed to hold on Friday.
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Aruna’s road to the quarter-final in his third WTT tournament this year began with a comeback win against Germany’s Ruwen Filus, 3-2 in the round of 32 while he defeated French youngster Alexis Lebrun 3-2.
The Nigerian is the ‘last man standing’ of African players left in WTT Smash Singapore following the early exit of Egypt’s quartet: Omar Assar, Dina Meshref, Hana Goda and Mariam Alhodaby.
