ITTF World tour: Aruna Quadri marches on at China Open

Still smarting from his last 16 exit at last week’s Hong Kong Open, Aruna Quadri on Tuesday at the ITTF World Tour tagged China Open started well in the knockout stage of the preliminary round with a convincing win over his French foe.

Quadri who is not seeded at the China Open began his campaign from the preliminary round alongside other top stars like Belarus’ Vladmir Samsonov, China’s Zhan Jike and Denmark’s Jonathan Groth.

Pitched against French international – Joe Seyfried in the round of 128, Quadri played without any flaw against the Frenchman and he wasted no time in beating his opponent 4-0 (11-8, 12-10, 11-7, 11-8) to berth in the last 64.
On Wednesday, Quadri will face Iran’s Nima Alamian for a place in the last 32 of the preliminary round.

Also yesterday for Samsonov and Jike, advanced to the next to have a successful start to their campaigns.
Samsonov proved too experienced for Japan’s Yukiya Ueda (9-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-1, 14-12); soon after Zhang Jike overcame Germany’s Kilian Ort (9-11, 11.5, 11-8, 11-5, 14-12).

There is the theory that the first match is the most difficult, acclimatising to the atmosphere in the hall and of course confronting a relaxed adversary with nothing to lose; both lost the opening game before then recovering to win the next four.

Certainly Yukiya Uda is a hungry young man and a quick starter; in his very first match at last week’s Seamaster 2018 ITTF World Tour Hang Seng Hong Kong Open in the Under 21 Men’s Singles event, he beat Korea’s Lim Jonghoon, the top seed!

Impressively, Wang Chuqin, the runner up earlier this year on the ITTF World Tour in Hungary when beaten by colleague Fan Zhendong, succeeded in five games (14-12, 5-11, 11-9, 12-10, 11-6). Notably on the current Men’s World Rankings, Wang Chuqin is listed at no.137, Noshad Alamiyan at no.59.

Success for Wang Chuqin but he was not the only aspiring young player to attract the attention as play commenced in Shenzhen; colleagues Zhou Kai and Xue Fei also caught the eye.

The fight for places in the main draw of the $346,000 prize money tournament continues as the 16 seeded players are waiting for their opponents to emerge.