Quadri fights Long in the first round

Aruna Quadri will face Olympic champion and home favorite Ma Long on Tuesday (today) in the men’s singles first round of the ongoing World Table Tennis Championships in Macau, China, PUNCH reports.

Aruna, who exited the WTT Champions Xinxiang in the first round last week after losing 3-0 to Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yun-Ju, will look to improve his performance at the Tap Seac Multiport Pavilion.

The tournament has a combined prize pool of $800,000 and 1000 world ranking points waiting for the champions.

The 34-year-old Quadri, who is Africa’s top table tennis star, is wary of facing Long. In their last meeting last year, Long had a torrid time to defeat the Nigerian 3-1 in a blistering encounter, but with the Chinese’s recent slide at the highest level, nothing looks certain against Quadri, who has been described as the biggest thing to come from Africa in table tennis.

Ranked 11th in the world, Aruna will face world number four in hopes of advancing to the second round.

Speaking ahead of his first game, Quadri said: “There’s no doubt that this will be another tough match for me, but I’m going to give my best again because nothing is certain in the competition; everyone is in good shape and no one is sure of winning every match,” he said.

It’s 50-50 against any opponent in the competition. There is no doubt that it will be the biggest gathering of the best players in the world, and I hope that my best will see me through this time.

Egyptian Omar Assar faces another Herculean task as he was drawn in the first round with Brazilian Hugo Calderano. Assar, who has not been in good form recently, will have to redouble his efforts against the world number five.

In the women’s singles, Africa’s sole flag bearer Dina Meshref of Egypt has been drawn in the first round with Australia’s Yangzi Liu as the African women’s champion looks set to go beyond the first round in Macau.