The good run of Quadri Aruna at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Star Contender Doha came to an end yesterday after the Nigerian fell 4-2 to South Korea’s Lim Jonghoon in the semifinal of the Men’s Singles at the Lusail Sports Arena in Qatar.
Jonghoon took a 2-1 lead over Aruna in three closely fought games. Aruna was first out the gate and had chances to take the second game but the Korean took a grip on the match. In head-to-head encounters, Jonghoon leads Aruna 2-0, but the Nigerian will try to come up with something different to score his first win in Qatar.
Despite going down 3-1 to the Korean, Aruna took the fifth game 12-10 and clawed his way back to 2-3 but Jonghoon maintained his perfect record against Aruna with a 4-2 (8-11, 13-11, 11-9, 11-1, 10-12, 11-5) win, putting an end to the Nigerian’s epic run in Doha.
“I want to thank all my fans across the globe for their support and I hope to continue to work harder so that I can continue to make them happy. I think it was not my day today but I hope to be back again on a big stage like this. I thank the organisers for creating a conducive environment for us to showcase our talents. I will return to training with the aim of doing better in the next tournament,” Aruna said.
Meanwhile, the 25-year-old World No.47, Jonghoon was beaten 4-2 in the final by Croatia’s Andrej Gacina later yesterday.
