TheCable

Aruna Quadri has been eliminated from the World Table Tennis (WTT) Contender in Durban, South Africa.

He was defeated by Yaroslav Zhmudenko of Ukraine in three straight sets in the quarter-final of the men’s singles on Saturday.

After scraping a narrow victory over 16-year-old Felix Lebrun in the round of 16, the African number one produced a deflated performance against the 145th-ranked Ukrainian.

Aruna surrendered all three sets 11-8, 11-7 and 11-3 in a one-sided match that lasted just 23 minutes.

The first competition of 2023 for the world number 14 did not go as envisioned and he would be hoping to return to the form that earned his second African championship in 2022.

Zhmudenko went on to win his semi-final clash against France’s Simon Gauzy to set up a final against Hugo Calderano of Brazil on Sunday.

In the women’s singles, Dina Meshref of Egypt also saw her advancement curtailed by Chinese Taipei’s Chien Tung-Chuan in the quarter-final.

The Egyptian lost 3-2 in a keenly contested match that swung both ways before Tung-Chuan claimed the final set 13-11.

Tung-Chuan, however, lost the semi-final to China’s Qian Tianyi who will face compatriot Fan Siqi in the final.