Table Tennis: Quadri Leads G. D. Toledos To Retain Portuguese Cup Title

Nigeria’s  ace table tennis layer, Aruna Quadri, has maintained a clean sheet when he led his club,  G. D. Toledos table tennis club to retain the Portuguese Cup at the  weekend.

The competition was competed for by the 16 teams in the Portuguese  table tennis elite league took place in Azores Island of Pico in  Portugal.

Without dropping a match against all their opponents, G. D. Toledoes,  which had won the same tournament last season repeated same feat when it  defeated Sporting Club in the final 3-0 to hold on to the title.

Quadri, who captained his team to retain the title, said their route  to the final started when they battled G. D. Montargilense with a  resounding 3-0 victory.

“It was another happy weekend in Azores Island of Pico after we defeated all our opponents to retain Portuguese Cup title. We won the  title in an amazing manner after none of our opponent win a game against  us. In short it was all 3-0 matches against all teams as we showed  brilliant performance,” he said.

“In the first round of the tournament we defeated G. D. Montagilence  3-0. It was a familiar rival in second round, Juncal another tough team  from Azores Island gave us a tougher challenge but we won in a three  straight game to qualify for semifinal.

We played Benfica in semifinal  and we won in the same margin. And we played Sporting Lisbon in final  and won in an amazing way also 3-0. The toughest challenge came from the main rival, Sporting but we played so much more better than them and we  gave a brilliant performance,” Quadri said.

The All Africa Games bronze medalist added: “I started against  Sporting Lisbon and I won in a surprising way. I won against Diogo Chen,  a player that had played with four times now and I succeeded in all  encounters.

I had a lot of problem in last three meetings but at the  weekend it was so much more better for me as I played from point to  point and show no mercy.”

For Quadri, it was another dream come true. “It was another dream come through for me to win the Portugal Cup twice in a row and I give  all thanks to almighty God for the perfect victory. I feel so happy to do it again and my team will not relax at all until  we win the league cup again. I personally will continue working  harder,” he said.

Quadri and his compatriot, Kazeem Makanjuola will next week take part in the Qatar and Kuwait Opens.