Africa’s record maker at the ongoing Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Aruna Quadri has admitted that he is satisfy with his quarterfinal berth at the multi-sports championship in Brazil.
Quadri, who was seeded 27th at the Rio Olympic Games and ranked 40 in the World, caused two successive upsets against two of the world’s top players.
Based on his rating, he got a bye to the second round where he started his campaign against Slovakia’sYang Wang and defeated the European star 4-1 to set up a third round clash against world number seven and tournament number five seed, Chinese Taipei’s CHUANG Chih-Yuan. But the match against CHUANG Chih-Yuan announced the superb form of Quadri in Rio as the 2014 ITTF Star Player bashed the Taiwanese 4-0 to berth in the fourth round.
Against, he was set up against former number one and tournament number 10 seed, Germany’s Timo Boll and in his usual style, Quadri turned the table against the German with a 4-2 win.
And early yesterday, Quadri was demystified by world number one and champion, China’s Ma Long in the quarterfinal tie that ended 4-0 in favour of the Chinese superstar.
However, Quadri believes his performance in Rio has boosted his confidence to take on any opponent in the world.
“I am so much happy with my performance and also satisfy with my efforts in Brazil. I never thought I would go far but with God on my side I made my mark. I think the quarterfinal match against Ma Long was very tough because my opponent did not give any breathing space at all. I could play my style as he was forcing me to play his style. I could not make use of my forehand very well and he was too aggressive. I think he deserved the victory. But there is always another time for us to meet and I hope this defeat has taught me another lesson in my career,” Quadri said.
