In less than two weeks after Aruna Quadri ended the dream of retaining the men’s singles by Egypt’s Omar Assar at the 2019 African Games, the Egyptian has avenged the defeat with a 3-1 win over the Nigerian at the European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) Champions League at the weekend.
Playing away to Borussia Dusseldorf in the first round of the ETTU Champions League, Quadri led Sporting of Portugal to the German city of Dusseldorf but the Nigeria Open champion could not save his team from losing 1-3.
Portuguese international – Diogo Carvalho gave Sporting a perfect lead after upsetting German legend Timo Boll in the opener with a 3-1 (11:9, 9:11, 9:11, 12:14) win, but it was the battle between the best ranked African players, Omar ASSAR (world no. 44) and Quadri (no. 19) that tilted the game in favour of the home team with the Egyptian winning 3-1 (7:11, 11:6, 11:8, 11:6),
Swedish star, Anton Kallberg gave Dusseldorf a 2-1 lead with a 3-0 (11:4, 11:2, 0:0) win against Sporting’s Francisco Silva in the third encounter, while Boll finished up the game for the home team with a 3-0 (11:3, 12:10, 12:10) win over Quadri to give the former champion a 3-1 win.
Also in Group D, French champion Hennebont beat Croatian STK Starr 3-1 away.
Belgian Cedric Nuytinck prevailed against both, Chinese-born duo of Qiu Liang and Sun Chia-Hung to provide two points for Hennebont in Group D. French team defeated STK Starr Croatia 3:1, in spite of losing opening encounter, when Sun Chia-Hung beat Fan Sheng Peng. Hennebont’s newcomer Samuel Walker added third point for the guests as he overcame Ronald Redjep in straight games.
Reigning champion Russia’s Fakel Gazprom Orenburg beat France’s Angers TT 3:0 in the opening round, playing on home ground with its powerful line-up which has Portugal’s Marcos Freitas, Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov, and Belarus’ Vladimir Samsonov.
