Nigeria’s table tennis star Quadri Aruna will return to action at the WTT Champions Chongqing on Tuesday (today), when he takes on France’s Félix Lebrun in the men’s round of 32, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
Currently ranked world No. 48, Aruna will be featuring in his third WTT tournament of the season as he searches for his first win of the year. He lost his two previous matches at the WTT Star Contender Doha and the Singapore Smash in February.
Tuesday’s meeting with the 19-year-old Lebrun will be the third encounter between the two players. Aruna has one win from their previous meetings.
His last victory over the Frenchman was a hard-fought 3–2 win at the WTT Contender Durban in South Africa in January 2023.
They met twice in 2024 at the WTT Star Contender Goa and the WTT Champions Chongqing, where the teenager recorded 3–0 and 3–2 victories, respectively.
Both players will renew their rivalry in Chongqing on Tuesday, with a place in the round of 16 at stake.
Individually, Aruna’s form heading into the clash is concerning, as the 37-year-old is winless in his last five matches on the WTT circuit.
Lebrun, on the other hand, has lost just one of his last five matches, suffering a 4–1 defeat to world No. 1 Wang Chuqin at the Singapore Smash earlier this month.
While Aruna has struggled on the WTT tour recently, he represented Nigeria at the ITTF Africa Cup in February, where he exited in the semi-finals after losing to Algeria’s Mehdi Bouloussa.
At last year’s WTT Champions Chongqing, Aruna lost 3–0 to Wang Chuqin in the opening round, and he will be hoping for better fortune against Lebrun this time.
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