Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna has been pitted against India’s Sathiyan Gnanasekaran in the main draw of the men’s singles of the $200,000 prize money World Table Tennis Middle East Hub in Doha, Qatar.
Senegal’s Ibrahima Diaw failed to join Aruna in the main draw as he was beaten by Japan’s Masataka Morizono 3-1 (11-5, 11-6, 7-11, 12-10).
Tokyo 2020 Olympics-bound Diaw fought his way to the fourth stage of the preliminary but the southpaw Japanese was too much for the African.
Nigerian Olajide Omotayo, Egypt’s Omar Assar, Ahmed Saleh, Mohammed El-Beiali and Khaled Assar were all shown the exit door in the first and second stages of the preliminaries.
As the only African competing in the main draw, Aruna, who is among the 24 top players seeded for the tournament, will square up against the Indian on Table One on today.
