Africa number one table tennis player Aruna Quadri dug deep to beat Nima Alamian of Iran in the round of 64 of the Liebherr 2019 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships in Budapest on Tuesday.
Quadri defeated his Iranian opponent 4-3 (9-11,12-10,13-11,8-11,11-5,11-13,12-10) to reach the round of 32 of the ITTF World Championships.
Earlier, Quadri defeated Florent Lambert of Belgium 4-0 (11-8,11-9,11-7,11-5) in the round of 128.
The Nigerian will next face his biggest challenge when he battles World number one Zhendong Fan in the round of 32 of the men’s singles on Wednesday.
Fan is yet to drop a game in all his two matches in the men’s singles.
Meanwhile, Africa number two Omar Assar and Ahmed Saleh both of Egypt failed to make it to the round of 64 while Assar squandered his 3-1 lead to surrender the victory to the Portugal’s Joao Gerald 4-3, Saleh lost 4-0 to Lubomir Jancarik of Czech Republic.
In the women’s singles, Africa number 1 Dina Meshref lost 4-3 (11-7, 10-12, 11-6, 11-4, 6-11, 7-11, 11-3) in the round of 64 to Canada’s Mo Zhang while her compatriot Yousra Helmy lost in the round of 128 to World number 1 Ning Ding.
Quadri is the only Nigerian and African in the round of 32 of the Liebherr 2019 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships.
