TheCable

Quadri Aruna has crashed out of the 2021 World Table Tennis (WTT) championship in Texas, Houston.

The Nigerian table tennis star lost 4-2 to Sweden’s Truls Moregard in the men’s singles tournament.

Aruna, the only surviving African player in the WTT championship, failed to go past his 19-year-old opponent after his triumph over Kristian Karlsson in the round of 16 on Friday.

Moregard won the first two sets 13-11 and 11-8 against the Nigerian ace.

Aruna fought back to claim the third set 11-2 but his Swedish opponent showed his dominance with an emphatic 11-4 win in the fourth set.

The world number 19 raced ahead in the fifth set to win 14-12.

But the Swedish player was too hot to handle for Nigeria’s number one topspin master as he took the sixth set 11-7 to win the game.

The Swedish sensation will meet Germany’s Timo Boll in the semi-final later on Sunday.

Despite Aruna’s exit in the quarter-final, he has set a standard for African players at the WTT championship.