Quadri retains ITTF Nigeria Open, may miss African Game

As the number one seed of the men’s singles, Aruna Quadri was unbeaten to emerge winner of the 2019 ITTF Challenge Plus Nigeria Open and in the process take home a princely $7,000 for his effort in defending his title.

The home boy and crowd favourite was a delight to watch and went in a thrilling six games decider (15-13, 11-3, 8-11, 11-6, 10-12, 11-1) despite a fresh injury to defeat world number 64 at the Molade Okoya-Thomas hall of the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos.

An excited Quadri expressed his happiness winning the title once again while also casting doubts on his availability for the fast approaching African Games later in the month in Morocco

“I am very happy I got this title again, though from the beginning I faced some difficulties with my health because I had a neck injury but I managed to gain confidence after my previous victory,” he said.

“For now I have to take care of my health because I have been representing Nigeria for the past 11 days, so without taking treatment I don’t know if I would be able to go for the Africa Games.”

Quadri’s 2019 win had increased his Challenge series title to three having won the 2018 edition of the Nigeria Open as well as the 2017 Polish Open.

But it was a disappointment for Nigeria’s duo of Olajide Omotayo and Segun Toriola as they had to settle for silver in the men’s doubles event.

For the women’s singles, Russia’s Mikhailova Polina came top in an exciting 4-3 comeback against Noskova Yana of Russia to be crowned champion of the event.

While Mikhailova Polina and Noskova Yana from Russia won the Women’s double event after beating Croatia duo of Jazbec Ida and Malobabic Ivana 3-2 (8-11, 5-11, 11-9, 13-11, 7-11).

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