Aruna Quadri, Nigeria’s top-ranked table tennis player, has been eliminated from the World Table Tennis Championship at the Tap Seac Multiport Pavilion in Macao, China.
Aruna Quadri exited the tournament in the first round for the second time, losing to Olympic champion and local favorite Ma Long on Tuesday.
Long defeated the 11th-ranked Quadri 3-1 (11-8, 11-6, 9-11, 11-8), in what appeared to be a one-sided match that lasted 49 minutes and 59 seconds.
In the game, Quadri had 33 points and Long had 42. In terms of points won on his serve and points won on the opponent’s serve, he trailed the winner by five and four points, respectively.
This means that the 34-year-old Quadri will miss out on the $800,000 prize pool and 1000 points for the overall world table tennis ranking.
Bernadette Szocs defeated Chen Xingtong, the seventh seed, 3-1 in the other game in the first round of the WTT Championship in Macao 2023.
After shocking everyone by defeating Olympic champion Chen Meng 3-2 in the WTT Champions Macao 2022, the Romanian has now added another Chinese superstar to her list of upsets.
Chen, a finalist at the 2017 WTT Champions, was expected to play a significant role in the women’s singles title fight this week and entered the day’s activities in a good mood after reaching a career-high ranking on Tuesday.