Nigerian top-ranked table tennis player Aruna Quadri has been knocked out of the World Table Tennis Championship at the Tap Seac Multiport Pavilion in Macao, China.
Aruna Quadri ended his journey in the first round of the tournament for the second time after losing to Olympic champion and local favorite Ma Long on Tuesday.
In what seemed to be a one-sided encounter that lasted 49 minutes 59 seconds, the 11th-ranked Quadri was defeated by Long 3-1 (11-8, 11-6, 9-11, 11-8).
Quadri scored 33 points in the game, while Long scored 42. He fell behind the winner by five and four points, respectively, in terms of points won on his serve and points won on the opponent’s serve.
This means that the 34-year-old Quadri has lost the opportunity of sharing in the $800,000 prize pool and 1000 points for the overall ranking of world table tennis players.
In the other game in the opening round of the WTT Championship in Macao 2023, Bernadette Szocs stunned Chen Xingtong, the seventh seed, 3-1.
The Romanian shocked everyone by outlasting Olympic champion Chen Meng 3-2 in the WTT Champions Macao 2022, and she has now added another Chinese superstar to her list of upsets.
Chen, a finalist at the 2017 WTT Champions, was anticipated to once again play a big part in the women’s singles title fight this week and entered the day’s activities in a cheerful state of mind after attaining a career-high ranking on Tuesday.
