After the disappointing outing at the WTT Contender in Turkey, Quadri Aruna has been drawn against Danish star, Jonathan Groth in the first round of men’s singles at the WTT Champions Frankfurt in Germany.
WTT Champions Frankfurt which began yesterday will feature a field of 32 in both the Men’s and Women’s Singles draws, competing for 1000 ITTF World Ranking points and a slice of the $500,000 prize pool.
Aruna who is aiming to make the cut for the end-of-the-year WTT Finals involving the top 16 players in the world in men’s and women’s singles, will be aiming to halt the dominance of the Danish who has had an edge over him in all their meetings.
The 2023 African champion who moved up to 15th place in last week’s world ranking is hoping to shore up will have his hands full against the European southpaw who recently won a WTT Feeder title.
“It is a 50-50 match against Groth because he is a great player, I respect him but I will surely give my best and hope that my best will see me through in the match,” Aruna told NationSport.“ It is the dream of every player to feature at the WTT Finals to improve ranking ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in France.”
Apart from Aruna, Egypt’s trio of Omar Assar, Dina Meshref and Hana Goda are also competing in Frankfurt.
Assar will face Sweden’s Anton Kallberg in the men’s singles while Meshref will square up against Japan’s Mima Ito while Goda will face home-girl Nina Mittelham in the women’s singles.
Sitting on top of the Men’s Singles draw is World No.1 Fan Zhendong who picked his first WTT Champions title earlier this year in Xinxiang.
As he looks to get his campaign for a second trophy underway, he will face Swedish sensation Truls Moregard. So far this year Moregard is yet to better his WTT Champions Macao 2022 semi-final appearance in the Champions tier, and will be up against the best of it in Frankfurt from the first point.
Credit: thenationonlineng.net
