Quadri aims for $145,000 at Hong Kong Open

Aruna Quadri has been is among the 16 players seeded for the $145,000 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour, tagged Hong Kong Open at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Hong Kong.

The Nigerian table tennis champion will join some of the best table tennis players in the world aiming for honours and ranking points at the championship as most of the players are targeting ranking points in the Asia city.

Quadri who recently claimed the Portuguese league with Sporting is seeded 13th while Egypt’s Omar Assar has been seeded sixth while home boy - Ting Chun Wong is the number one seed.

Quadri and other 15 seeded players will start their campaign from the main draw tomorrow, May 24 while the qualifiers began yesterday, May 22.

A confident Quadri said he is hoping to finish among the best in the event. “I will try my best to do well and I hope my best will see me through because this is the assembly of crème-de-la-crème in world table tennis,” he said.

Also, Olympic Games gold medalist, World champion and winner of the Men’s World Cup, alongside colleague Ma Long are the only player to hold all three prestigious titles at the same time but for China’s Zhang Jike, in order to reserve a place in the Hong Kong Open, he must succeed in the qualification tournament.

Home fans will be very much focus on Wong Chun Ting. He is the top seed in the Men’s Singles event. Furthermore, he partners Ho Kwan Kit in the Men’s Doubles competition where they are the no.3 seeds, behind Korea Republic’s Jeoung Youngsik and Lee Sangsu, the runners up earlier this year in Germany. Japan’s Jin Ueda and Maharu Yoshimura are the no.2 seeds.