Quadri halted at Doha table tennis tourney

Africa’s number one table tennis player, Aruna Quadri, has crashed out of the prestigious Qatar Open in Doha, at the quarter-final stage to a better-ranked Japanese player.

Ranked 20th in the world and first, in Africa, Quadri’s performance is thought to be very good and should change his ranking in the world when the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), releases its next rankings.

Japan’s Tomokazu Harimoto, accounted for his fall at the championship. Quadri who defeated Japan’s Masataka Morizonohe 3-1 (11-6,11- 9,1-11,11-7) in the previous round, was not at his best in the round 16 encounters.

The German based star lost the first set 11-4, the second set 13- 4, before losing the third set 11-7 to bid the tournament goodbye . Quadri’s defeat means Africa will have no representative in the last eight as Egyptian duo of Omar Assar and Ahmed Saleh were knocked out in round of 32.

Omar Assar lost to Kazakhstan’s Kirill Gerassimenko 3-2 (11-7, 11-7, 9-11, 8-11, 11-7), while Ahmed Saleh lost in straight sets 11-8, 11-5, 11-2 to Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany.