Omotayo defeats Gunduz, nears Spanish Open main draw

Nigeria’s Olajide Omotayo yesterday defeated Turkey’s Ibrahim Gunduz in the first Group 4 match of the preliminary round of the ongoing International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Challenge Spanish Open to make good his intension of advancing to the main draw of the men’s singles of the annual tennis event.

Omotayo started well against the Turk with 12-10, 11-5 wins but his opponent rallied back to win the third game in 11-3.

Thereafter, Omotayo did not play to the gallery as he wasted no time to dispatch the European star in the next two games in 11-8, 12-10 to complete the 4-1 rout.

Having defeated the Turkish, Omotayo will file today against Kazakhstan’s Denis Zholudev in the last group match.

Also today, Omotayo will partner Nigeriaborn Congo Brazzaville’s star - Saheed Idowu in the doubles event and they are expected to battle against their Irish counterparts in the preliminary round of the event.

Also, an opportunity in recent times Hong Kong’s Jiang Tianyi has not enjoyed the best of fortunes but at least he does have the consolation of two ITTF World Tour men’s singles titles to his name. In 2008 he won in Brazil and in 2015 in Hungary.

It is an achievement that despite all his efforts, has avoided Austria’s Robert Gardos; one of the hardest working players you could ever meet, time is running out for the now 38 year old.

He has come near but never near enough; in 2006 he hit a purple patch, a series of good results, at the ITTF World Tour Chile Open in Santiago, he came within a whisker of gold. In the final, he was beaten by Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus. Furthermore, he was so close to two titles on that day.