Quadri Aruna Laments After Early Exit From 2024 ITTF World Cup

Nigerian table tennis icon, Quadri Aruna has described his second and last defeat at the ongoing 2024 ITTF World Cup in Macao, China as “hurtful”.

Quadri Aruna was the only Nigerian table tennis player who made it to the 2024 ITTF World Cup alongside two other African table tennis players.

Unfortunately for Aruna, the 35-year-old icon couldn’t progress beyond the group stage and couldn’t break his quarter-final record which is also the farthest any African table tennis player has gone in the tournament.

On his opening day at the tournament, the Nigerian table tennis icon lost 4-1 to Daniel Gonzalez of Croatia on Tuesday.

Following the disappointing start, Quadri Aruna suffered his second defeat at the tournament. Portuguese Marcos Freitas beat him 3-1 (12-10, 11-9, 11-9, 3-11) in the deciding match of Group 15 of the men’s singles.

The defeat didn’t only end Aruna’s run at the tournament in an embarrassing format, it hindered him from equaling his head-to-head record with Freitas. The Portuguese star has now defeated the Nigerian star three times to one.

After the latest defeat at the hands of Freitas, Aruna said, “The first three sets were so close and could have gone either way as it happened.

“But that happens in the game, I lost and it was hurtful.”

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