Quadri, Assar breeze into last 16 at Hong Kong Open
Aruna Quadri and his continental rival – Egypt’s Omar Assar on Thursday booked their places in the last 16 of the ITTF World Tour tagged Hong Kong Open.
Aruna Quadri and his continental rival – Egypt’s Omar Assar on Thursday booked their places in the last 16 of the ITTF World Tour tagged Hong Kong Open.
But the passage of Quadri and Assar to the next stage was not without its obstacles as the Africans had to dig deep to humble their Japanese and Singaporean opponents in the round of 32 match.
It was Assar who first made a smooth ride into the last 16 after humiliating Quadri’s conqueror at the 2018 Commonwealth Games – Singapore’s Gao Ning.
Without much efforts, Assar defeated the veteran Singaporean 4-1 (11-7, 11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 12-10).
Playing late in the night in Hong Kong, Quadri was made to work hard for his victory against the Japanese youngster – Yukiya Uda.
From the start of the encounter, the southpaw Japanese was dictating to win the first game at 9-11. But Quadri with his ferocious forehand won the next two games at 11-5, 11-8. What looked like a good run
for Quadri was halted in the fourth with the youngster winning 6-11. The match, which was dubbed star match of the tournament by ITTF, Quadri overcame the Japanese at 4-3 (9-11, 11-5, 11-8, 6-11, 11-8, 9-
11, 11-3) to sail to the last 16 of the championship.
On Friday, Quadri will face a familiar foe in Portugal’s Marcos Freitas in the last 16 encounter on table two while Assar will confront Japan’s Maharu Yoshimura.
In other matches, what looked like a return to big stage for World and Olympic Champion – China’s Zhan Jike was thwarted by Japan’s Yoshimura.
Jike was beaten by Yoshimura, the no.9 seed, the contest rather putting into the shade, the efforts of Korea’s Jang Woojin and Cho Seungmin who, alongside Sweden Jon Persson and Zhou Qihao, also from China,
caused upsets as play in the Men’s Singles event commenced.
The contest between Zhang Jike and Maharu Yoshimura, the winner on the ITTF World Tour in Croatia and Spain in 2015 but not on duty at the recent Liebherr 2018 World Team Championships, ebbed and flowed.
Eventually Maharu Yoshimura recovered from a three games to two deficit to emerge successful by the minimal margin in the decider (11-9, 8-11, 13-11, 13-15, 6-11, 11-8, 11-9).