Aruna Quadri became the first Nigerian (and first African) to reach the quarter-finals of the Olympics table tennis men’s singles event when he thrashed 10th seed Timo Boll of Germany 4-2 on Monday.
The 28-year-old Quadri took an early 3-0 lead against two-time medallist Boll, who was the flag bearer of his country during Friday’s opening ceremony. He capitalised on the German’s uncommon mistakes.
However, Boll, who won bronze for his country in the men’s team competition in the London 2012 Games, would not go down without putting up a fight. And he fought his way back, winning the next two sets. However there was no stopping Quadri, who coolly wrapped up the match in the sixth set.
Quadri, who also defeated 7th seed Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chih-Yuan in the third round earlier on Monday, will now face world number one Ma Long of China in the quarter-final.
cpcnews.org 