Oshodi praises Quadri in defeat

Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) President, Enitan Oshodi, has praised Aruna Quadri for his superlative performance at the Olympics even though his hopes of winning Africa’s first men’s singles table tennis Olympic medal were dashed at the Riocetnro Pavilion 3 in Rio.
“It was a good outing for him and for the country. Though he lost, which was painful, he did not disappoint us,” Oshodi said.
“He lost to world number one and that means he left with his head high. He really proved himself as African champion and we must accept the fact he did his best but perhaps, his best was not enough to subdue the world number one.”
Quadri had stopped some big names on his way to the quarterfinals, but reaching the semifinals became a step too far as he came up against world number one, Ma Long.
The Chinese was too quick and too sharp for Quadri, beating him in four sets.
Quadri started brightly, sharing the first four points with Long 2-2, but from that point on it was the Chinese all the way.
The match ended 11-4, 11-2, 11-6, 11-7 and was quickly over in just 28 minutes.
Quadri became the first African to reach the men’s singles quarterfinal in Olympic history after defeating Timo Boll from Germany 4-2.
He took the first three sets 12-10, 12-10, 11-5.
Boll bounced back to claim the fourth and fifth sets 11-3 and 11-5, but Quadri eventually prevailed after clinching the sixth set 11-9 to advance into the last eight.