Nigeria star Qaudri Aruna has been sent packing from the World Table Tennis Contender series in Doha in the first round.
The second seed, who was knocked out in the quarterfinals of the WTT Contender Durban last week, was defeated by a well-known opponent in Portugal’s Marcos Freitas.
Aruna lost 3-1 in what was a comeback victory for world No. 34 at the Lusail Sports Arena.
The 35-year-old took the first set with a comfortable 11-5 scoreline, but the lefthand of Freitas seemed too much for Africa’s No. 1 as he rushed to 11-7, 11-9, and 13-11 in a clean sweep score in the three other sets.
The encounter was Aruna and Freitas’ fifth-ever matchup, but just their third in a singles’ event, with the Portuguese now ahead with a 2-1 head-to-head score.
The 2023 WTT Contender Doha will continue until January 21. Top seeds Hugo Calderano and Jang Woojin were comfortable 3-0 winners, while Andrej Gacina lost shockingly to South Korea’s Cho Seungmin, ranked 60th in the world.
The WTT Contender Doha has a winners’ prize money of $75,000 and 400 world ranking points.
