Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna produced a stunning performance to defeat No. 5 seed, Tomokazu Harimoto 3-2 at the WTT Champions Frankfurt 2024.
Aruna recovered from a poor start to earn a deserved victory with scores of (7-11, 11-13, 11-5, 14-12, 11-3).
Harimoto won the first two games before Aruna fought back with his impressive backhand to force a decider.
In the final game, Aruna played with immense confidence and freedom, dominating the fast exchanges and shifting the momentum firmly in his favour.
Aruna used his powerful trademark backhand 10-3 to seal the match, earning him a place in the round of 16 and his second-ever match win at the WTT Champions level.
He has now won two out of their five encounters with Harimoto having the upper hand with three victories.
Aruna will face the winner between Spain’s Alvaro Robles and Germany’s Richardo Walther in the round of 16.
Hana Goda of Egypt will take on the tournament’s wildcard He Zhuojia in the first round of the Women’s Singles tomorrow.
A cash prize of $500,000 is on the table, with the singles champions each coming away with $30,000 and 1000 ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking points.
2024 African Champion Omar Assar of Egypt crashed out in the first round after losing to Sweden’s Anton Kallberg 3-0 (11-9, 11-7, 11-3).
Aruna Defeats Harimoto To Qualify For WTT Champions Second Round is first published on The Whistler Newspaper