The 28-year-old Quadri was quick off the blocks as he took an early 3-0 lead against two-time medallist Boll, who was the flag bearer of his country during Friday’s opening ceremony, capitalising on the German’s uncharacteristic mistakes.
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Nigeria’s Quadric Aruna proved himself the true giant-killer in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games table tennis tournament after showing the door out to German veteran Timo Boll here on Monday.
Nigeria’s table tennis hopeful in the singles event Aruna Quadri has qualified for the quarter-final making him the first ever African tennis player to reach this stage at the Olympics.
Dimitrij Ovtcharov was also tested in his fourth round encounter against Slovenia’s Bojan Tokic, beaten 33-31 in the first set in a 11-point format game before rounding it up 4-1. I didn’t expect to go this far, though I actually believe in myself. “I really can’t explain what has been going on”.
Aruna won the first three sets 12-10 12-10, 12-5 in 10 minutes, and lost the next two to Timo, 11-3, 11-5.
It has been Boll’ s fifth Olympic Games and the fourth time that the once European “Golden Boy” failed to qualify for the quarters. I really needed a few sets to get control of the game.
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Having created upsets in the early rounds, Quadri was hoping he could give his Chinese opponent a scare, but that was not to be as Long blew away the last African standing in four straight sets.
