Aruna Quadri Storms France For 2018 ITTF World Cup

After leading Portugal’s Sporting to their first win of the 2018/2019 European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) Champions League, Africa’s sole representative at the 2018 ITTF World Cup, Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri has arrived Paris, France, in readiness for the three-day tournament which serves off on Friday October 19.

The $250,000 prize money championship will have 20 best players in the world competing to share from the prize money and also amass ranking points.

Quadri, who made the final cut based on his world ranking, will start his campaign from the first round where 12 players will be drawn into foure groups of three players in each group. The top two players in each group join the already seeded eight players to compete in the knockout round on October 20, while the final holds on October 21.

The 2018 ITTF African champion was in high spirit for the tournament and he is eager to re-enact the feat that saw him becoming the first African to make it to the quarterfinal stage of the championship with his superlative outing at the 2014 edition in Dusseldorf, Germany.

A determined Quadri said he is looking forward to a good draw with the aim of advancing to the knockout round. “I am here to perform like every other player and I am in good shape after the last weekend’s win in the Champions League. Every player competing in the World Cup, are potential champions and I am looking forward to give my best again and hope for the best against the best in the world,” Quadri said.

The draws for the first round of the World Cup holds on Thursday October 18 at the Disney Event Arena in Chessy, a suburb in the east of Paris, France.