ITTF World Cup: Mizutani Is Better Than Me, Quadri Admits

Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri has admitted that Olympic bronze medalist Jun Mizutani is better than him after he crashed out of the 2017 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Cup in Liege, Belgium.

Mizutani beat Aruna 11-6, 11-7, 11-6, 11-7 on Sunday in the Round of 16 to advance to the quarter-finals.

Quadri, however, said, “I fought from the beginning to the end but it was not meant to be; Jun Mizutani is stronger than me.”

He noted that he was unable to make it past the group stage in 2016, but his qualification this year was a result of the improvement in his games.

He added that Egypt’s Omar Assar also represented Africa well at the competition, though he was eliminated by number one seed and World Champion Ma Long of China.

“I think we (Assar and I) did great, it’s not a child’s play to have qualified out of that group when you are playing against best 20 players in the world,” Aruna said.

“We were doing great from the beginning, both of us qualified from the group. So, it’s something interesting; it means African table tennis is improving a lot now.”