African stars Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and Egypt’s Omar Assar failed to reach the quarter-finals of the 2017 International Table Tennis Federation World Cup in Belgium after they crashed out of the event on Saturday.
Having worked their way into the main draw (round of 16) of the prestigious tournament, Quadri’s dream of repeating his 2014 quarter-final feat was extinguished by Japan’s Jun Mizutani while Assar met his waterloo against World and Olympic champion, China’s Ma Long.
Despite tantalising the Belgian fans at the Country Hall of Liege, Quadri could not withstand the Japanese Olympic bronze medallist, who beat the Nigerian 4-0.
Assar put up a fight against the number one player Ma Long but the experience of the Chinese was too much for the Egyptian. Long, who was playing his first game in the competition, cruised past the African star with a 4-1 win.
