Just like he did in the first round, Quadri Aruna continued his superb display after taking down Lee Sang Su of South Korea 3-2 in the second round of the men’s singles at the WTT Saudi Smash taking place at King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah.

The Nigerian, who is ranked 19^th in the world, was at his best from the start of the encounter, dominating the first two games to win 11-9, 11-9. But the Korean fought back in the third and fourth games to level up at 9-11, 7-11.

In the deciding encounter, Aruna raced to the lead with a 4-1 win, but the Korean thwarted his lead to 4-4 with both players playing with a lot of caution.

Even when Aruna was hitting the ball hard for the Korean, it was as if his shots were not too much for his opponent, who took the lead and was on the verge of victory at 10-8.

A backhand topspin from Aruna became the undoing of the Korean, who lost two points to allow the Nigerian to level up at 10-10.

A missed shot from Aruna again handed the Korean 11-10 lead, as only a point was all the Asian star needed to avenge his last meeting loss against Aruna.

Just like he did in the first round against Indian legend Sharath Achanta, Aruna stood his ground and fought like a true champion to match the Korean shot-for-shot, which eventually went his way for the tie to go 10-10.

Two missed shots were what Aruna needed to silence the supporting Asians at the venue of the match, as the Nigerian laughed last with a 13-11 win to become the second player to reach the second round after Iran’s Noshad Alamiyan took down world number five Jingkun Liang 3-2 to cause the first upset of Day 3 of the $2 million prize money tournament.

For the third-round tie (round of 16), Aruna will face another Korean in Daeseong Cho on Wednesday, May 8.

The Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) has named Quadri Aruna, Offiong Edem, Olajide Omotayo and Fatimo Bello as Nigeria’s flagbearers at the 2024 ITTF African Cup and Olympics Qualification Tournament taking place in Kigali, Rwanda, from May 12 to 18.

According to the prospectus of the tournament, each country is expected to present two men and two women for the African Cup while Egypt as the defending champions in men and women will present three players each. Rwanda will present four men and four women as the host country.

In the list of participants released by the continental table tennis ruling body, African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), Omar Assar of Egypt as the men’s singles defending champion will be joined by her compatriot – Hana Goda who will also be defending her title in the women’s singles.

Aruna as finalists at the 2022 edition held in Lagos, Nigeria, suffered an injury in the final to forfeit the match to Assar after coming back from the brink of defeat to level up.

He led in the seventh game, but a thigh injury forced him to surrender the title to the Egyptian in front of the supporting Lagos fans.

The Nigerian who had dropped in the ITTF ranking to 19th place is hoping to use the tournament to climb his way back to the top of the world rating will again be facing a Herculean task against the Egyptian trio of Assar, Mohamed El-Beiali and Youssef Abdel-Aziz.

Omotayo who is yet to show why he was crowned the 2019 African Games champion will be looking forward to another showdown against some of the finest African stars in Kigali.

Edem who spearheaded Nigeria’s silver medal at the 13th African Games will be looking forward to a repeat of her Accra’s superlative performance in Kigali.

Bello, a finalist at the 2022 edition must have put her below-par performance in Ghana behind her with the hope of reenacting her 2022 form in Rwanda.

At the Olympics Qualification Tournament, Aruna will be eyeing her fourth Olympic Games appearance when the event kicks off on May 16 at the BK Arena in Kigali as Egypt will not be competing as they had already picked their tickets at the 2023 African Championships in Tunisia.

Jamiu Ayanwale of Rivers and Sukurat Aiyelabegan were flawless in their triumph at the 4^th Michael & Felicia Alabi Memorial National Table Tennis Championships which ended in Ota Ayegbaju in Osun State at the weekend.

The five-day tournament has been upgraded to a ranking event by the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) and was organised by the Osun State Table Tennis Association (OSTTA) with support from Michael & Felicia Alabi Memorial Foundation and Canada-based Jodal Health Care.

Earlier in the day, Delta’s Ese Onakpoberuo had beaten Favour Ojo of Ondo 3-2 (11-7, 5-11, 11-3, 7-11, 11-4) to emerge winner in the girls’ U-15 while Kwara’s Hussein Faruq of Kwara defeated Joseph Marvelous of Delta 3-1 (8-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-6) to win the boys’ event.

Players from 28 states featured in this year’s event being the record entries from the previous editions and the tournament lived up to expectation with some tops seeds exiting early in the championships as number three seed Emmanuel Augustine of Lagos was shown the door by unseeded Mustapha Mustaph of Borno in the round of 16, while Joshua Oladiran of Ondo, who was 2023 runner’s up was bundled out by unseeded Wasiu Azeez of Oyo in the semifinal of the men’s singles.

In his quest to lift the men’s singles title, Ayanwale was unmatched from the knockout stage to the final where he also dominated Oyo’s Azeez with a commanding 4-1 (11-4, 11-6, 11-4, 9-11, 11-6) to win the tournament for the first time.

Like Ayanwale, Aiyelabegan continued her dominance over Lagos State champion Bose Odusanya with an overwhelming 4-0 (11-8, 11-8, 11-5, 11-8) to be crowned the women’s singles champion.

OSTTA Chairman and sponsor of the tournament Ayodeji Alabi lauded the players for putting up a good display while pledging his commitment to continue to improve the standard of the tournament annually.

“I am very grateful for another opportunity to host this tournament again and I am happy that at last, it has become a ranking event for all Nigerian players based on the sanction by NTTF. I hope and believe we can produce the next Quadri Aruna from this tournament, and it will afford us the opportunity to sharpen the skills of the players for major international competitions,” he said.

Alabi, however, hailed Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun for his commitment for sports development, adding that since inception the tournament has been receiving the support of the state government.