Quadri Wins, Makanjuola Losses In ITTF World Tour.

Nigeria’s representatives at the ongoing International Table Tennis Federation, ITTF, World Tour, started their campaigns on mixed fortunes as Aruna Quadri recorded an emphatic 4-0 win while Kazeem Makanjuola loss by same margin to France’s Benjamin Brossier.

Quadri who played in Group nine, started the encounter against Egypt’s Mohamed Elsobky, on a shaky note but he prevailed to win the game 11-8, 11-8, 11-6, 13-11 to record a whooping 4-0 win.

But it was not the same for his compatriot, Makanjuola, who is making his debut in an ITTF World Tour losing 5-11, 9-11, 8-11, 5-11 to his French opponent.

However, Quadri is in position to progress to the main draw as his last group match holds today against Russia’s Alexey Liventsov to decide the winner of the group while Makanjuola's last group match will be against Portugal’s Joao Monteiro.

The winner of the 32 groups in the qualifiers will advance to the main draw to confront the top 32 seeded players.

In the doubles’ the duo of Quadri and Makajuola got a bye to the round of 32 of the qualifying round and they are expected to tackle the Germany’s pair of Ruwen Filus and Ricardo Walther on Thursday February
13.
 For the Quadri, the victory against the Egyptian would surely spur him against the Russian.

“I did not play like I expected before the match. I won but I was not on top of my game. The reason is just that it has been so long I took part in an international tournament. I was expecting a tougher challenge from the Egyptian but I was fortunate because he did not play well also,” he said.

The 2011 All Africa Games bronze medalist added: “I think I will play better in my next game as I will keep improving in every match.

Winning Portuguese Cup does not matter because Portuguese Cup was between clubs in Portugal. But everything is different in Kuwait because this is an international tournament and the level of play is high. I know that to win my next match to be certain of the playing in the main draw, I must improve on my service as well as receiving.”

The Kuwait Open is a super series event on the ITTF World Tour, which is the top of the three tiers (super, major and challenge). Six gold medals will be at stake - men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, men’s U-21 singles and women’s U-21  singles.

The Kuwait Open is the first Super Series event of 2014 and second World Tour event of the year after the Hungarian Open, which was a challenge series event.

The players are looking to obtain world tour series standings points to qualify for the $1m World Tour Grand Final to be held later in the  year.