TheCable

Omar Assar defeated an injured Aruna Quadri 4-3 to be crowned champion of the ITTF Africa Cup for the third consecutive time.

The scintillating encounter between the two best table tennis players in Africa sent the Molade Okoya Thomas Hall, Teslim Balogun Stadium, into a frenzy on Saturday.

It was a match on the knife-edge as usual of these players’ tie, with Assar leveraging his speed and agility and forcing the ineffectiveness of Aruna’s famous forehand smashes.

The Egyptian took the first set 14-12 before relinquishing the following two sets to the Nigerian 11-8 and 11-4.

Assar took a nervy fourth set 13-11 and established a lead with an 11-6 victory in the fifth.

Assar and Quadri

Aruna roared back to life to win the sixth, sending the game into the final winner-takes-all contest set.

The home fans were buzzing after Aruna had raced to a 4-1 victory until he pulled a muscle in his thigh.

Although he managed to resume the game after minutes of medic attention, the World number 10 lost his spark, and Assar took the set 11-7 to claim a hattrick of Africa Cups.

The 30-year-old Assar won the title previous two editions in Nairobi in 2018 and Lagos in 2019.

He also defeated Quadri in the final of the men’s singles at the 2021 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) African championship.

In the women’s singles, 14-year-old Hana Goda of Egypt defeated Nigeria’s Fatimo Bello in the final to claim her first-ever ITTF Africa Cup.