TheCable

Nigeria Ping-Pong champion, Aruna Quadri, helped his club GD Toledos to retain this year’s Portuguese Table Tennis Cup title concluded at the weekend in Porto, Portugal.

Quadri, who lost out in the quarterfinal of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Africa Senior Championship in Cairo, Egypt last month, was in impeccable form at the two-day tournament.

Playing from the preliminary stage to the semi-final, Quadri and his teammates showed class especially in their semi-final game against Juncal, which they won 3-0.

In the final, they were pitched against fans’ favourite, Sporting Lisbon. But Quadri and co. once again rose to the occasion and despite dropping a game, ensured that the cup remained with GD Toledos, as they won 3-1 – for the third consecutive time.

An excited Quadri believes the success would surely spur him on for the upcoming Kuwait Open.

“I feel so great winning the title again and team work materialized in delivering the Portuguese Cup once again. I have won the title thrice in a row and retaining the title again has increased my confidence for Qatar and Kuwait Opens. I think this weekend matches in the Portuguese Cup has prepared for the next coming pro tours due to the fact that I played some tough matches,” he said.

Meanwhile, the defeat he suffered in the men’s singles at the ITTF Africa Senior Championship has adversely affected the position of the ITTF Star Player in the February world rating released by the world table tennis ruling body at the weekend.

For losing to Egypt’s Mohamed El-Beiali, Quadri dropped from 30 to 32 in the latest ranking while his conqueror improved in his rating from 195 to 179 in the world.

But the Oyo state-born athlete sees the positive in the slide saying it would help him to continue to work hard.

“My ranking going down is a wake-up call although I felt disappointed and at the same time I am happy that I gained more additional point to my ranking bonus points. It is a sign that I must work harder than before and I am finally happy that African is having two players in top 50 with Egypt’s Omar Assar now rated 43,” he said.

In the Kuwait Open, which begins on Wednesday February 11, Quadri will be campaigning from the qualifiers as the world’s top 16 will be competing from the main draw having been seeded by the organisers of the championship.

The 26-year-old says he would be happy to exceed his previous outing in the tournament in Kuwait.

“I will be very happy if I can surpass my last year’s performance in the pro tour. I never qualified to the main draw in any major series of the ITTF World Tour and I will be glad if I can break that record in Kuwait and Germany Opens this year,” he said.