Motivated by the inspiration of legend Segun
Toriola, Aruna Quadri yesterday defied all odds to
demystify one of the tournament’s favourites,
Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chih-Yuan with a 4-0
bashing to berth in the fourth round of the men’s
singles of the table tennis event at the Rio 2016
Olympic Games.
For making it to the fourth round (last 16),
Quadri has equaled the feat achieved by Toriola
at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in China
where the former African champion made it to
the same stage of the championship.
The Nigerian who is ranked 40th in the world and
27 at the Rio Olympic Games tamed the world’s
number seven and tournament’s number five
seed to make a giant stride in his career.
If what happened at the 2016 German Open is
anything to go by, Quadri has no chance against
the Asian star as the 2014 ITTF Star Player was
bundled out in less than 15minutes.
Fired up by the loud ovation that greeted Segun
Toriola’s exit in the second round of the men’s
singles, Quadri was in excellent form with an
emphatic routing of his highly-rated opponent.
The defeat suffered by the Asian star was that
disgraceful that he could not win a game in the
4-0 ((11-6, 12-10, 11-6, 11-7) bashing.
Notably, four year ago at London 2012, Quadri’s
victim – Chuang Chih-Yuan had reached the
bronze medal match, where he was beaten by
Germany’s Dmitrij Ovtcharov.
Like Quadri, another star of the night was
Ukraine’s Kou Lei who attracted the attention by
upsetting top seed.
Kou Lei, the no.28 seed, ended the hopes of
Frenchman, Simon Gauzy, the no. 13 seed (11-6,
6-11, 16-14, 11-9, 11-6).
In the fourth round match, Quadri will be faced
with another task as he is expected to battle
against Germany’s Timo Boll, ranked 13 in the
world and tournament’s number 10 seed
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