Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna suffered a 3-2 defeat to German Ricardo Walther to crash out of the WTT Frankfurt tourney in the round of 16.
Aruna produced a stunning performance to defeat Tomokazu Harimoto 3-2 in the first round, but his performance was not enough to overcome Ricardo Walther.
In a keenly contested affair, Walther edged Aruna 9-11, 14-6, 11-7, 12-10 in the men’s singles encounter at Süwag Energie Arena.
Despite missing out on a quarter-final place, Aruna’s performance has drawn praises from the International Table Tennis Federation, who took to their X account to hail the Nigerian star.
ITTF wrote, “Quadri Aruna may be out of WTTFrankfurt, but he left it all on the table with an incredible fight against Ricardo Walter.”
Aruna was proud of his performance in the encounter despite losing to Walter.
He said, “At 0-2 down, I knew I was never alone. The crowd was there for me; they were supporting me and kept me going. Because of that, I never gave up. I kept fighting and fighting. I’m here to have fun, enjoy myself, and show the world that I’m one of the best from Nigeria and Africa.”
Defending Champion of the competition, Dang Qiu also crashed out of the competition following a a heartbreaking 3-2 loss in a thrilling round of 16 showdown against Lin Yun-Ju (5-11, 11-8, 11-6, 7-11, 11-4).
Ricardo Walther began his career at TTC Blau-Weiß Brühl-Vochem. In 2009, Walther won the bronze medal at the World Junior Table Tennis Championships.
He was part of the German national table tennis team that won the silver medal at the 2022 World Team Table Tennis Championships in Chengdu.
Aruna Quadri will be hoping to bounce back in the next tournament in December.
Nigeria’s Aruna Crash Out Of 2024 WTT Frankfurt Tournament is first published on The Whistler Newspaper