The good run of Aruna Quadri at the ITTF World Tour China Open came to a sudden end yesterday after the Nigerian fell 2-4 to South Korea’s Seungmin Cho in the fourth round of preliminary of men’s singles.
For making it to the fourth round of preliminary, Quadri emerged as the best African player in the tournament after Egypt’s duo of Omar Assar and Ahmed Saleh were edged out in the third round of preliminary earlier yesterday in the $400,000 prize money championship.
Unlike the Egyptians, Quadri breezed into the fourth round after another convincing win over Portugal’s Diogo Chen earlier yesterday. The Nigeria dominated the Portuguese star with an overwhelming 4-1 (11-6, 11-7, 18-16, 10-12, 11-8) in the third round of the preliminary but Assar and Saleh fell to Portugal’s Joao Monteiro 4-3 and Japan’s Masataka Morizono 4-0 to exit the championship.
In the fourth round of the preliminary, Quadri was set up against the Korean southpaw and from the start of the encounter; it was as if the match would go in favour of Quadri when he won the first game at 13-11. But the Korean star fought back by winning the next two games at 8-11, 8-11.
In another close tie, Quadri restored parity in the fourth game when he claimed another nail-biting victory at 12-10. Not ready to drop his lead against the Nigerian, the Korean regained the lead with another 7-11 win in the fifth game. The sixth game turned out to be the toughest of the match with Quadri utilizing his forehand to the undoing of his opponent that he took a 7-5 lead. But the ingenuity of the Korean came to fore when he started playing shot balls and this paid off for him to win the sixth game at 8-11 and continues his dominance over Quadri in their last two meetings.