Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri has been drafted for 2019 ITTF Men’s World Cup holding in China this weekend after injury ruled out Hong Kong’s Wong Chun Ting.
According to ITTF, owing to an ankle injury, Hong Kong China’s Wong Chun Ting had to withdraw from the upcoming ITTF Men’s World Cup to be staged from Friday 29th November to Sunday 1st December.
As a result, the experienced Nigerian will be lining up later this week in Chengdu.
It would be recalled that Wong suffered an injury at the end of the second game while facing China’s Xu Xin at the T2 Diamond Singapore event last week and despite the best efforts by his team and coach, the 28-year -old was unable to continue.
Ranked no.16 in the world, Wong has now announced his ankle injury will also force him out of the Men’s World Cup.
Quadri is expected to compete in the group stage of the competition as the 31-year -old is a regular face at top international events and is no stranger to pushing the table tennis elite to the limit.
This will be Quadri’s fifth appearance at the Men’s World Cup, as he had appeared at the two most recent editions in Disneyland Paris (2018) and Liège (2017); his best performance, however, came at the 2014 edition in Düsseldorf, when he reached the quarter-finals.
This year as a whole has been somewhat topsy-turvy for Quadri having started the year with a round of 32 finish at the Liebherr 2019 World Championships in Budapest, he reached the semi-finals at the ITTF World Tour Bulgarian Open in Panagyurishte. Following that, his win in Lagos at the ITTF Challenge Plus Nigeria Open was followed by a surprising round of 16 exit at the ITTF Challenge Plus Portugal Open.
Overall, he will be certain to make the best of this opportunity at the Men’s World Cup in Chengdu.