Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri was the hero for Sporting of Portugal as the Portuguese champion recorded their first group win over STK Starr of Croatia.
In the first group tie against the German champion fortnight ago, Quadri was the culprit as he failed to win any of his matches against Egypt’s Omar Assar and Germany’s Timo Boll but at the weekend, he was the cynosure of all eyes as the Nigeria’s win over Chinese-born duo of Liang Qui and Chia-Hung Sun salvaged a 3-2 win for the Portuguese side.
Quadri played his best against Liang Qui to produce an emphatic 3-0 win (11-9, 11-7, 11-5) over his opponent in their third consecutive appearance in the lucrative European tournament.
Chia-Hung Sun and Ronald Redjep defeated Portuguese internationals – Diogo Carvalho and Francisoc Wahnon- to give the visitors a 2-1 lead.
Quadri restored parity for the Portuguese giant with another 3-0 (11-8, 11-6, 11-5) over Sun to put the encounter at 2-2 as Carvalho finished up in the fifth game with a convincing 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-4) over Liang Qui.
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An excited Quadri described the win for the team as they are targeting a good finish this year. “I would not be carried away by this victory as we still have more matches ahead of us to be sure of advancing to the knockout stage,” he said.