The only African and Nigerian featuring in the European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) Champions League, Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri will be leading Sporting against Portugal’s Marcos Freitas team – France’s Pontoise Cergy in the third round of the lucrative league on Thursday November 23 in Lisbon. Quadri who finished among the top eight in the men’s […]
via Quadri battles Portugal’s Freitas in ETTU Champions League — newfanzoneblog
The world’s best table tennis stars have gathered in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon in preparation for the GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals which starts today 10 December and runs until 13 December 2015.
Finalists at the GAC Group 2014 ITTF World Tour last year in Bangkok, Europe’s top player Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER) and Jun MIZUTANI (JPN) are set to an early face-off in the first round of the Men’s Singles event. MIZUTANI claimed the title eventually in Bangkok, but at their latest encounter at the Liebherr 2015 ITTF Men’s World Cup, it was OVTCHAROV who prevailed.
“It’s a very hard draw for the both of us,” shared OVTCHAROV after the draw ceremony. “We have played seven times in the last 12 months, of which I won four times, but he has won three out of the four times we played at major international tournaments, so the results is going to be very open.”
The 27-year-old German added “Often the one with the better start wins, but the scores will be very close. I will of course try my very best to win this!”
Local hero Marcos FREITAS (POR) has the toughest draw out of everyone, with the European Championships runner up facing world number one and World Champion MA Long in the first round.
The fans could also expect a matchup between the reigning World Champion DING Ning and newly crowned 2015 Female Table Tennis Star LIU Shiwen in the Women’s Singles event. The duo last played internationally at the epic gold medal match at the 2015 World Championships, where DING overcame her injury in the decider to take her second World Championships title.
The GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour is the year-ending finale to the US$3,000,000 ITTF World Tour, whereby the top 16 singles and 8 doubles pairs qualified through collecting #Race2Lisbon points throughout the 2015 ITTF World Tour.
The GAC 2015 ITTF World Tour is split into three tiers (highest first): Super (6 events), Major (6 events), Challenge (11 events). The higher the series, the more prize money, world ranking points, Race to Lisbon points and higher quality of competition on offer.
The qualified players for the lucrative GAC Group 2015 World Tour Grand Finals have been announced after a record-breaking end to the regular World Tour season, which consisted of 22 stops.
The final World Tour event of 2015 was played out in Sweden on the weekend, where the world’s best table tennis players fought it out for the final positions on the standing list at the GAC Group 2015 World Tour Grand Finals, which will take place on 10-13 December 2015 in Lisbon, Portugal.
Only 16 men and 16 women were able to secure their golden ticket to Lisbon, as well as eight men’s and women’s doubles pairs, and eight men’s and women’s under 21 players.
World Champion and World number one MA Long (CHN) topped the Race to Lisbon standings after another very consistent year on the tour winning two Super Series titles. Japan’s Ai FUKUHARA finished number one on the women’s charts after winning three World Tour titles in 2015.
MA, who won both the 2015 World Championships and the recent 2015 Men’s World Cup stated “Happy to have qualified after missing out last year, and I look forward to capping off a dream year with another big title!”
The pair who battled it out for gold at the end of season Swedish Open men’s singles final, XU Xin (CHN) and FAN Zhendong (CHN) were the next two on the men’s list, just ahead of JUNG Youngsik (KOR) and Maharu YOSHIMURA (JPN) who both had a breakthrough season on the GAC Group 2015 World Tour.
China Open Champion ZHU Yuling (CHN) and 15 year old Japanese sensation Mima ITO followed FUKUHARA on the women’s charts and will be heading to Lisbon looking for World Tour Grand Final glory.
Despite having the second half of her reason ruined by injury and sickness, World Champion DING Ning (CHN) did enough to book her place in Lisbon, as did World number one and World Cup Champion LIU Shiwen (CHN).
The local Portuguese fans will have a player in every event to cheer for in Lisbon. They will be led by World number seven Marcos FREITAS, who had a strong year on the tour to finish seventh on the Race to Lisbon standings and will be looking for glory in front of his home fans.
The US$3,000,000 GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour, consisted of 22 events split into three tiers based on prize money and the quality of the event: Super Series (six events), Major Series (five events) and Challenge Series (11 events).
From these events, players earned Race to Lisbon points to qualify for the prestigious GAC Group 2015 World Tour Grand Finals, will be held at the Pavilhão Multiusos De Odivelas Lisbon, Portugal on 10-13 December 2015. To qualify, players had to play in a minimum of five events.
A repeat of the epic 2014 Men’s World Cup Final clash between MA Long and ZHANG Jike will not be possible at the GAC Group 2015 World Tour China Open, as they have been drawn in the same half.
Despite this, fans in Chengdu, China will be treated to one of the strongest World Tour tournaments in recent history, with nine out of the top ten men, and eight out of the top ten women all competing in the sixth and final Super Series event of the year.
Qualifications for the main draw starts today, 5 August 2015, with players battling to join the world’s best players in the main draw, which starts Friday, 7 August, with the medals being handed out on Sunday, 9 August!
If current World Champion MA Long, is to win a record fourth China Open title in a row and sixth overall, he will have to overcome players he has had tough battles with in the past. The world number one is due to play FANG Bo, whom he defeated earlier in the year in the World Championships final, and face his archrival ZHANG Jike in the semi final.
“I always enjoy playing in front of my home fans.” stated MA.”It would mean a lot to me to win my sixth China Open title. It won’t be easy as the world’s best players are here, but I will try my best to be the champion!”
It won’t be just these players threatening MA Long’s quest for a 20th World Tour title. Top stars such as XU Xin, FAN Zhendong, Dimitrij OVTCHAROV, Timo BOLL and Marcos FREITAS will also have their eye on securing the prestigious China Open title.
Anticipation is high for the women’s event as well, as a rematch of one of the most dramatic World Championships finals in history between DING Ning and LIU Shiwen is on the cards on Sunday.
After the draw, the world number one stated: “I know everyone is looking forward to watching me play LIU Shiwen again. However, this competition is very strong, with many top players, so I will have to play well just to get to the final, as will LIU.”
As stated by DING, the field here in Chengdu is very strong, with ZHU Yuling, CHEN Meng, FENG Tianwei, Ai FUKUHARA, Kasumi ISHIKAWA and Mima ITO all looking to make sure that a repeat of the 2015 World Championships final does not come to fruition.
14th stop of the US$3,000,000 GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour, the China Open is also the sixth and final Super Series event of the year, which is the top tier on the World Tour. The rest of the World Tour events are split into Major series (6 events) and Challenge (11 events).
All players will be pushing for Race to Lisbon points in a bid to qualify for the World Tour Grand Finals. The top 16 singles and top eight doubles pairs on the Race to Lisbon Standings will be invited to the prestigious 2015 World Tour Grand Finals to be held in Lisbon, Portugal on 10-13 December 2015.
The GAC Group 2015 World Tour is offering a record US$3,000,000 in prize money, and will also be the most viewed in history, with more events shown live throughout the world on television, and all the events being shown live on ITTF’s live streaming platform, ITTF.com/itTV
In an effort to improve his game as well as to rub shoulders with the world’s best, Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri has signed for a French Club in the lucrative France Table Tennis Federation (FTTF)-organised elite league.
Quadri, who started his professional career in Portugal in 2010 and thrice named the best player in the Portuguese League, will play for Jura Morez TT next season.
Before joining GD Toledos two years ago, Quadri started with AR Novelense and with the two Portuguese clubs he won the league, super cup and the Mediterranean trophy.
Being one of the best leagues in the world, the French league has some of the world’s best players like World number 10 and Portugal’s Marcos Freitas plying their trade in the league.
Jura Morez TT emerged champions during the 2013/2014 season in Pro B to gain promotion to the top division and they retained their place in the elite league where Quadri will be playing his trade.
The deal was formally concluded during a recent trip by Quadri to Paris, where he met with the management of the team and also used the opportunity to inspect the club facilities.
Quadri was well received by the management of the club led by its chairman and Secretary, G. Philippe and M. Gilles.
With this development, Quadri will join his compatriot and Africa’s most decorated player, Segun Toriola who has been plying his trade in the French league for years.
Meanwhile, Quadri will return to the ITTF World Tour this week in Zagreb, when he takes part in the Croatia Open.
Quadri and Mawussi Agbetoglo are Africa’s representatives at the five-day tournament and the Oyo State-born athlete will partner Portugal’s Andre Silva in the men’s doubles event, which serves off Tuesday May 19.
The Multiple Award winning table tennis player as also recently signed an improved deal with Germany-based table tennis kit giants JOOLA. This event took place in Frankfurt recently.
Quadri is pictured here with JOOLA Managing Director, Michael Bachtler during the signing of an improved contract with the JOOLA
The 53rd World Championships concluded at the Suzhou International Expo Centre tonight, with the remaining two titles, Men’s Singles and Women’s Doubles World titles being decided.
World number one MA Long (CHN) became the Men’s World Champion for the first time, in front of the capacity crowd in Suzhou.
With this being his fourth time participation at world championships, MA played his first World Championships Men’s Singles gold medal stage tonight in Suzhou. His best result at past world championships was in the semifinals, where he met the now retired WANG Hao (CHN) on all three occasions.
The 26 year old faced compatriot FANG Bo who eliminated hot favorites XU Xin (CHN) as well as two-time defending and Olympic champion ZHANG Jike (CHN) en route to the finals.
Determined to get hold of the St. Bride Vase, MA was all fired up to dominate the court in front of the home crowd. Despite all of FANG’s efforts to turn the situation in his favour, MA won 4-2 (11-7, 7-11, 11-4, 11-8, 11-13, 11-4) to claim the title that has eluded the world number one all these years.
“It is like a dream come true. Having losing in the semifinals at the three world championships previously, honestly I have a lot of pressure to earn this title. At the end of the day I think these was worth it.” shared the newly crowned champion.
In the other gold medal match of the night, DING Ning (CHN), who reclaimed her Women’s Singles title last night in the most dramatic fashion, put up a good fight with partner LI Xiaoxia (CHN) in the Women’s Doubles gold medal match.
Facing teammates LIU Shiwen and ZHU Yuling, DING/LI pulled off amazing rallies during the match to take the lead early in the match despite DING having difficulty moving around with her sprained ankle. LIU/ZHU, equally determined to take home the title, trailed closely behind in the match.
LIU/ZHU eventually prevailed 4-3 (8-11, 11-8, 3-11, 11-8, 11-13, 11-8, 11-8) to emerge victorious to claim the title. This defeat means that DING Ning has now played four Women’s Doubles finals in a row and have lost them all!
LIU who lost her women’s singles title against DING the night before, expressed “I was very upset after the loss last night. While I know I only have to accept it. I’d like to thank my coach, teammates and friends for their support.”
The 24 year old added “Since I had doubles to play today, I knew I had to be mentally tough. I cherish this match because I’ve never won the championship in single’s event before and I knew I had to give it my best effort tonight.”
Other than the two World Championship titles that was won, Japan’s 14 year old sensation Mima ITO won the Qoros Newcomer award for her outstanding performance at the Qoros 2015 World Championships. She battled her way to the quarterfinals on her debut here in Suzhou.
Gold Medalists at the Qoros 2015 World Championships:
Men’s Singles: MA Long (CHN)
Women’s Singles: DING Ning (CHN)
Men’s Doubles: ZHANG Jike / XU Xin (CHN)
Women’s Doubles: LIU Shiwen / ZHU Yuling (CHN)
Mixed Doubles: XU Xin (CHN) / YANG Haeun (KOR)
#ITTFWorlds2015 Statistics:
Total unique viewership on CCTV yesterday (2 May 2015): 99,027,000 which is the 6th highest rating sports show on CCTV in 2015
Total viewership between 27 April – 2 May: 223,332,000
Total unique people have seen content on ITTF’s facebook page between 26 April – 2 May: 2,373,752
Total unique people who have visited ITTF’s website between 26 April – 2 May: 8,560,318
With the perfect closing of the Qoros 2015 World Team Table Tennis Championships, the 54th edition of the World Championships will be staged in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in February 201
China’s DING Ning pulled off the most dramatic victories in table tennis history to become the women’s singles world champion.
DING collapsed on the floor when the score was 0-2 in the 7th game, and everyone feared that her title challenge was over. DING managed to get back to her feet and fight back to record a famous victory.
She eventually played a brilliantly strategized game to come back to win the decider 11-8 to reclaim her crown. DING first claimed her world championship title at the 2011 World Championships in Rotterdam.
The 24 year old who managed to make her comeback from 0-1 down to lead 3-1 against her compatriot LIU Shiwen, injured her ankle at the beginning of the 7th game. After taking her medical timeout, she decided to continue with the match even though she could barely walk.
The severity of the injury was shown, as DING was rushed to hospital in an ambulance. The latest reports show that there is no break and she is going to be ok, but she is in major doubt for tomorrow’s women’s doubles semi final.
DING is due to play in the Women’s Doubles event with grand slam winner LI Xiaoxia (CHN), expressed after victory, “I will need to have my injury examined to decide if I will be playing in the Women’s Doubles semifinals tomorrow morning.”
After the dramatic finals match, DING shared “It was like a dream to me to have won this title, it especially felt so in the last game when I sprained my ankle when I was 0-2 points down.”
“The turning point was really at the second game when I was trailing 2 points behind at 8-10, but I managed to save both game points and eventually took that game 15-13. I believe the momentum of the game changed at that point of time.”
China’s XU Xin and Korea’s YANG Haeun are the newly crowned mixed doubles champions at the Qoros 2015 World Table Tennis Championships, making them the first international mixed doubles pair to be crowned since 1966.
Even though this was their first partnership, the dynamic duo was able to work well together to defeat Japanese pairing of Kasumi ISHIKAWA and Maharu YOSHIMURA 4-0 (11-7, 11-8, 11-4, 11-6) to claim the title.
After the historic victory, XU who was knocked out from the Men’s Singles event by his colleague FANG Bo after sustaining a shoulder injury, shared that “the injury definitely have affected my play. I am glad that our partnership worked out well despite my injury. I am neither a hero, nor a warrior, but I made sure that I give my best. As long as that is the case, I think the outcome matters less compared to the process and efforts.
“This victory is a result of the combined efforts by me and my partner, her performance has been very stable since our first match here in Suzhou, and she has improved a lot to help us win against the Japanese in the finals,” the world number two added.
Delighted about her first ever World Championship title, YANG expressed that “I am really excited that we could win the title. It’s definitely an invaluable experience for me, and have learnt a lot from this partnership with XU Xin, not just in techniques, but also in terms of mental strength.”Â
Despite losing to the Chinese/Korean pair, it was still a historic moment for the Japanese team, being the first mixed doubles finalists from the land of the rising sun since 1977.
In the Women’s Singles, 14 year old Mima ITO (JPN) had the tournament of her career, making it to the Quarterfinals on her debut world championships.
After overcoming Ukraine’s Tetyana BILENKO 4-1, she played her best match in Suzhou to challenge the Chinese supremacy, taking 2 games off grand slam winner LI Xiaoxia. The match went in favour of the defending champion eventually, as LI made an amazing comeback from 0-2 to win 4-2 (9-11, 14-16, 11-2, 13-11, 11-2) to join her other three Chinese team mates DING Ning, LIU Shiwen and MU Zi, who became the first player in the modern era to make the semi finals from qualification.
More action at the World Championships resume tomorrow with the gold medal matches for the Women’s Singles and Men’s Doubles taking place here in Suzhou.
The fifth day of the Qoros 2015 World Table Tennis Championships concluded with the Japanese mixed doubles duo Kasumi ISHIKAWA and Maharu YOSHIMURA becomingJapan’s first mixed doubles finalists since 1977.
The Japanese pair ended the defending championsKIM Jong and KIM Hyok Bong from North Korea to becomehopes of defending their title they won two years ago in Paris 4-2 (11-8, 5-11, 11-6, 10-12, 11-7, 11-4) to guarantee at least a silver medal for Japan in Suzhou.
ISHIKAWA and YOSHIMURA will face mixed nations pair XU Xin (CHN) and YANG Haeun (KOR) tomorrow night in the final battle for the title.
The victory boosted the Japanese team spirit after suffering two days of upsets and defeats since the commencement of the main draws, a confident ISHIKAWA shared: “Our goal is to perform our own ability, and we have confidence to play in our own level.”
While being successful in the mixed doubles event, number five seed ISHIKAWA fell in the hands of the unseeded MU Zi from the host country, being outclassed 0-4 (7-11, 10-12, 10-12, 4-11) in the round of 32.
ISHIKAWA was not the only defeat suffered by the Japanese team, her colleagues in the men’s doubles, Masataka MORIZONO and Yuya OSHIMA, joined her on the Japanese casualty list of the day.
MORIZONO and OSHIMA came so close to the biggest upset in Suzhou against the tournament hot favorites, XU Xin and ZHANG Jike (CHN). Despite having two match points, ZHANG & XU were too good in the end winning 4-3 (9-11, 11-8, 11-7, 9-11, 10-12, 11-9, 12-10) to advance to the semifinals of the Men’s Doubles event.
Jun MIZUTANI (JPN), on the other hand, narrowly escape elimination scares from JUNG Youngsik (KOR), to keep the Japanese singles dream alive in Suzhou. The pair engaged in an epic 7-games thriller, with MIZUTANI claiming victory 4-3 (4-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-4, 10-12, 11-9, 13-11).
In the other Men’s Singles round of 32 matches, Patrick FRANZISKA (GER) and Timo BOLL (GER) faced Portugal’s Marcos FREITAS and Joao MONTEIRO respectively to spark off an all-European battle.
56th in the world, FRANZISKA pulled off an amazing performance to upset FREITAS, a player he has never won a game against before 4-1 (13-11, 11-7, 12-10, 5-11, 11-6) to continue his quest for gold.
BOLL however faced tough challenge from FREITAS’s teammate MONTEIRO on his way to the round of 16. The 7th ranked German was pushed into a full-length battle against MONTEIRO. The 34 year old eventually won 4-3 (11-5, 7-11, 10-12, 14-12, 11-7, 3-11, 12-10).
Tomorrow sees the round of 16 of the men’s and women’s singles and the mixed doubles final.
The fourth day of the Qoros 2015 World Table Tennis Championships ended, in dramatic fashion, with two of the biggest names of in table tennis crashing out of the competition in the second round.
World ranked six, Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER), one of the favourites for the title suffered a surprise 3-4 (11-6,11-9,4-11,8-11,11-6,3-11,11-6) defeat against the number 36th seed LEE Sangsu (KOR), bidding goodbye to his World Championship title.
After his loss, OVTCHAROV, who beat the World and Olympic champion ZHANG Jike at the 2014 World Team Championships was devastated after the lost: “Of course I am extremely disappointed, I prepared every second for this event and to be knocked out in the second round is disappointing for me. He surprised me today to be so fast and aggressive from the very beginning. I wasn’t expecting it, and I was most surprised by his level. It was tough for me to get the flow and come back after trailing behind 0-2, 2-3 in the match.”
On the opposite end of the spectrum, LEE was celebrating his best ever win: “I believed. I believed. I believed I could win. So happy that I did to record the biggest win of my career against one the best players in the world.”
In the Women’s Singles event, number eight seeded Japanese Superstar Ai FUKUHARA became the biggest casualty after losing to Tetyana BILENKO (UKR), 55 positions after her on the ITTF World Rankings.
FUKUHARA was unable to keep up to the momentum of her opponent, losing 2-4 (11-3, 7-11, 11-6, 9-11, 3-11, 10-12) to the 31 year old Ukrainian.
“I am sad about my overall performance, I should have been more aggressive. I lost points and became a little bit passive with my tactics. I can’t believe my singles event is over so quickly” shared FUKUHARA after her match.
The 26 year old Japanese was not the only loss suffered by the Japanese team. Sayaka HIRANO who part of the Japanese team that won the silver meal at the London 2012 Olympics with FUKUHARA, was shocked by unseeded qualifier Hana MATELOVA from Czech Republic.
In the mixed doubles’ quarterfinals, defending champions KIM Hyok Bong and KIM Jong from North Korea overcame the Chinese pairing of WU Yang and YAN An in a thrilling 7 set encounter 5-11,11-8,11-8,4-11,11-6,7-11,11-7. The number one seeds now face the Japanese due of Kasumi ISHIKAWA and Maharu YOSHIMURA, who were also successful in their quarter final clash.
More excitement can be expected tomorrow in Suzhou, with the quarterfinals of the doubles events getting underway and more singles action.
Despite the exit of Segun Toriola and Aruna Quadri in the first round of the men’s singles at the ongoing ITTF World Championship, Olufunke Oshonaike has described the experience in China as the best by a Nigerian team in an individual world championships.
Toriola in his usual style fought well against Chinese’s Sheng-Sheng Huang recovering from 3-0 down to level up at 3-3 and finally surrendering the seventh game to bow out gallantly from the tournament.
But the biggest shock for Nigeria was the early exit of ITTF Star Player, Aruna Quadri who was beaten 4-1 by India’s Soumyajit Ghosh in the first round of the men’s singles.
The defeat to Quadri could not even be comprehended by the Nigerian who blamed his loss to ill-luck against the Indian.
But the Indian knew the importance of the win saying that “I am happy beating Aruna in a big stage like the world championships.”
Even as Oshonaike marked her birthday on Tuesday, she probally enjoyed herself in China despite losing 4-0 to world number, China’s Ning Ding.
Oshonaike described the encounter as the best moment in her career especially playing against the world number one. “I think I just had fun during the match and for me I am not too happy that I was drawn against Ning but it is indeed a rare privilege to play a player of her status. I am fulfilled with my performance in China because I made the first round for the first time since I have been taking part in the world championship,” she said.
Also the partnership between Oshonaike and Cameroun’s Sarah Hanffou proved worthy as they bundled out Africa’s women’s doubles champion, Egypt’s Dina Meshref and Nadeen El-Dawatly 4-1 in the first round of the women’s doubles event.
It is indeed a United States of Africa in Suzhou, China.
The qualification rounds of the Qoros 2015 World Table Tennis Championships concluded today, 27 April, to finalise all 128 positions in the main draws for the Men’s and Women’s Singles as well as the Men’s and Women’s Doubles events.
The only unseeded player from the Chinese team, MU Zi, cruised pass the both days of qualifications without dropping a single game, to join the rest of her teammates in the main draw in front of her home crowd.
Nigeria’s Olufunke OSHONAIKE had the crowd on their feet with her amazing performances which saw her advance to the Women’s Singles main draw. As a reward the Nigerian mother of two will play against top seeded DING Ning (CHN) tomorrow morning in the first round of the main draw.
ZHANG Jike (CHN) will start his quest to win his third World Championships title in a row against Romania’s Ovidiu IONESCU and Li Xiaoxia starts her title defense against HWANG Jina (KOR).
The first round of the mixed doubles event already got underway today as well in the evening, with capacity crowd cheering on the players in the action packed hall.
The host nation’s mixed doubles pair of WU Yang / YAN An survived an elimination scare when 68th seeded Ruta PASKAUSKIENE (LTU) & Aleksandar KARAKASEVIC (SRB) came back from 0-2 down to tie at 3-3, and trailing tightly behind. WU / YAN eventually escaped narrowly to make it to the next round.
KARAKASEVIC was understandably disappointed to come so close to the biggest upset of the event so far: “At 4-4 and 5-5 in the seventh game, if we could have gained a lead then I think they would have been afraid but we didn’t and that’s sport; at the moment I’m really disappointed, I think this was our big chance to win a medal at the World Championships!”
More action will begin tomorrow morning with ALL 8 tables streaming LIVE on ITTF.com/itTV and broadcast in 169 countries around the world. Live scoring can also be followed on the go at ITTF.com/Mobile!
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