The leadership of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) has hailed Nigeria table tennis star, Aruna Quadri, for reaching the quarter finals of the World Table Tennis Grand Smash Series in Singapore. He thus becomes the first African to get to that stage at the global level.
President of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation, Ishaku Tikon, while commending Aruna, hinted that the Nigerian star defeated some highly rated players including Japanese star, Tomokazu Harimoto who had beaten him thrice in the past on his way to the last eight of the WTT Grand Slam Series.
“Aruna’s outing at the Singapore WTT Smash Series and his emphatic victory over Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan will remain on lips of many global table tennis followers for a long time”, Tikon said.
Though Aruna lost his quarter finals match 4-0 to Brazilian Hugo Calderano rated fourth in the world to say goodbye to the tournament, Tikon said he is indeed proud of his performace in Singapore which earned him the record as the first Nigerian nay African player to reach the quarter finals as well as improve his world ranking.
