Olympic and world champion Ma Long has lauded the performance of Nigerian table tennis star, Quadri Aruna following his victory over the Nigerian on Monday.
Days after defeating Aruna who is the African top-ranked table tennis star in the first round of their WTT Champions Macao 2023, Ma Long said the efficiency of the African tennis star put a lot of pressure on him.
Recall that Long defeated Quadri 3-1 (11-8, 11-6, 9-11, 11-8) to advance to the next round of the competition. It was Quadri’s second encounter with the Chinese tennis star who is currently the fourth-ranked player in the world.
The match lived up to the expectation as both players gave it their all in a backhand and forehand matchup.
“I think it was a very tough match”, Long said after beating the Nigerian tennis star.
“I was more active in the first game, but we were very close in the last three games, especially in the third and fourth games. The overall strength of the opponent (Quadri), including the quality of his play, really put a lot of pressure on me.
“People always say Quadri has a really good forehand, but I think his backhand is really good as well.”
The defeat made Aruna the first tennis star from Africa to be knocked out of the first round of the ongoing tournament. Also, Omar Assar and Dina Meshref of Egypt lost against Hugo Calderano of Brazil and Yangzi Liu of Australia, respectively, in the opening round, making them the other two Africans to be eliminated from the competition.
