ITTF WORLD CUP: Nigeria's Aruna Quadri set to tackle tournament debutants

With the 2020 International Table Tennis Federation World Cup underway in Weihai, China today, Africa’s highest-ranked player, Aruna Quadri has been drawn in Group Three alongside three European debutants in what would seem like an easy routine for the Nigerian in the first round stage of the championship.

After Thursday’s draw, Nigeria’s flag bearer Quadri will serve off his tournament against German Patrick Franziska, before taking on Slovenian Darko Jorgic in his final group match. Both Franziska and Jorgic are considered as part of Europe’s emerging pool of table tennis talent, but experienced Quadri will fancy his chances.

The ITTF World Cup will serve as a way of restarting International Table Tennis events, having been on hold since the pronouncement of Covid-19 as a global pandemic in March 2020.

The Restart Competitions include; Women’s World Cup, Men’s World Cup, ITTF Finals, and WTT Championship taking place in Macau later this November.

Quadri, who will make his sixth World Cup appearance after making his debut eleven years ago in Moscow, enters the competition as one of its dark horses.

The Nigerian, having won bronze at the 2019 ITTF Africa Cup, is the number 13th seed of 20 players slugging it out at the three-day event in Weihai.

ITTF described him as “A regular at world title events, Quadri Aruna is no stranger to pushing the table tennis elite to the limit.

“Aruna will want to improve his best quarter-final finish of six years ago in Düsseldorf, as he could not go past the round of 16 in last year’s edition. What will the African representative bring to the table in Weihai?.”

Quadri will be expected to finish as one of the top two players in the four groups before advancing to the main draw where he will be drawn against the championship’s top eight seeds.