Aruna Quadri breezes into quarterfinal of Bulgaria Open

Less than five days after retaining his title at the 2019 ITTF Challenge Plus Nigeria Open, Aruna Quadri has worked his way into the quarterfinal of the men’s singles event at the ITTF World Tour tagged Bulgaria Open.

Quadri, who was seeded number 10 in the tournament, had on Thursday edged out giant-killing Chinese defender, Ma Te in the first round with a convincing 4-3 win to halt the unbeaten run of the Asian star.

In the round of the 16 tie, the Nigerian was set up a familiar foe in Hong Kong’s Chung Ting Wung and the Oyo State-born star did not disappoint with his performance on table three.

Having won the first two games at 11-7, 11-7, Quadri fell behind against his opponent to lose 11-4, 11-3 for the encounter to be at 2-2.

Despite complaining of fatigue, Quadri took the lead against in the fifth game at 11-9 but the Asian star restored parity with 11-5 win the sixth game.

The deciding game was what brought out the best in Quadri as the Nigerian came from 0-2 down to race to the lead and eventually conquered his opponent at 11-5 to complete a 4-3 win and made it to the last eight of the $190,000 prize money tournament.

READ ALSO: 2019 All Africa Games: Aruna Quadri shifts focus to Morocco

It was quite the turn of events in the women’s singles, as Japan’s Miu Hirano lost in straight games to China’s Chen Xingtong (11-9, 11-5, 11-3, 11-9).

The former World no.7 Chen was imperious against Hirano, taking just over half an hour to see the match through.

The Japanese player, playing her first match of the tournament after her opponent withdrew in the last round, could not beat back the force of her Chinese opponent’s forehands.

China’s Wu Yang beat Korea’s Suh Hyowon in five games, with the score-line of 4-1 hardly telling the full story (11-9, 11-3, 11-2, 3-11, 11-5).