Aruna QUADRI (NGR) has shocked the table tennis world by recording two stunning upsets on the opening day of the LIEBHERR 2014 ITTF Men's World Cup in Dusseldorf, Germany.
The 26-year-old, who was ranked as low as 237 at the start of the year, beat world number 27 Kenta MATSUDAIRA of Japan and world number 37 Alexander SHIBAEV of Russia to progress to the final 16.
The Nigerian star-in-the-making stated: "I never thought I will progress to the next round because I was going to play against top rated players who are ranked higher than me. So if I lose, I had nothing to lose but if I win it is a big thing for me. I am ready to face any player because they will be under pressure as they are ranked better than I do. I am hoping for another upset."
QUADRI will now take on TANG Peng (HKG) in the round of 16, and if he wins that, a dream quarter-final match up with the Olympic and World Champion China's ZHANG Jike. When asked about these matches, the current world number 73 stated:
"For me nothing is impossible. Sometimes you see a big moment of history, maybe only once in 20 years. Maybe tomorrow could be my history making moment."
14-year-old Kanak JHA of USA had the crowd on their feet in his first match, when he had doubles World Champion CHEN Chien-An down one game to nil. However it was not to be as he lost the match 4-1, as well as his next match, which knocked him out of the event.
Tomorrow, the top eight seeds come out to play the eight players who qualified from today's group stage.
Victorious Portuguese teammates from the recent European Team Championships, Tiago APOLONIA and Marcos FREITAS will become rivals, as they drew each other in their round-of-16 clash.
The Chinese Taipei World Champions doubles pair of CHEN Chien-An and CHUANG Chih-Yuan, will also have the strange feeling of playing against each other at a major event, as the play continues tomorrow.
Check out the full draw for tomorrow's round of 16 matches here: http://www.edm.ittf.com/link.php?M=40012&N=720&L=1158&F=H.
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