Nigerian Tennis Sensation Aruna, Bows Out of Rio 2016 Men's Singles

The giant-killing run of Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri in the Men’s Singles table tennis event was halted early Wednesday by the world’s number one player, Ma Long.

Having created upsets in the early rounds, Quadri was hoping he could give his Chinese opponent a scare, but that was not to be as Long blew away the last African standing in four straight sets.

The world number one was ruthless in his approach winning the four sets; 11-4, 11-2, 11-6 and 11-7.

Despite the bridge to the semi-final being too “Long” for Quadri to cross, the Nigerian star and indeed table tennis fans across the world would be proud of the heroics of the 28-year-old who on Monday became the first African ever to reach the quarter final of the Men’s Single event in an Olympic Games.

Quadri was a quarter-finalist at the Liebherr 2014 Men’s World Cup in the German city of Düsseldorf.

Worthy of note however, is that he had the Brazilian crowd behind him during the match. Shouts of 'Aruna! Aruna! Aruna!' rang out at intervals in the course of the matchup. To cap it all, just before he left the arena, the birthday boy got his 'Happy Birthday' song. He turned 28 on the 9th of August 2016.