Nigeria’s
Aruna Quadri became the first African to reach the quarter-finals of the
Olympic Games table tennis event on Monday
after beating London 2012 bronze medalist Germany’s Timo Boll 4-2 in the fourth
round of the men’s singles.
The
28-year-old defeated the world number 13 in
16 minutes as he won his third game in Rio, to send Brazilian fans, who
kept chanting ‘Nigeria’, into rapturous celebrations.
Quadri,
who is attending his second Olympics, defeated Boll 12-10 in the first set
before taking the second and third sets 12-10, 11-5. Boll regrouped and won the
next two sets 11-3, 11-5 but the Nigerian, who is currently ranked 40, took the
sixth set 11-9.
The
2014 ITTF Star Player of the Year had earlier in the third round defeated world
number seven, Chinese Taipei’s Chang Chun-Yuan, to book a place against Boll.
He will play winner of China’s Ma Long and Korea’s Jeoung Youngsik match.
Team
Nigeria’s assistant captain, Funke Oshonaike, hailed Quadri for his heroic
performance against the German.
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