Quadri Aruna | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Full name | Quadri Akinade Aruna | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nickname(s) | Rocky Aruna or Quadri Balboa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nationality | Nigerian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Oyo, Nigeria | 9 August 1988||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Table tennis career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Playing style | Attacker[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Highest ranking | 10 (May 2022)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Current ranking | 19 (March 2024)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | Fakel-Gazprom Orenburg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Quadri Akinade Aruna (born 9 August 1988, in Oyo, Nigeria) is a professional Nigerian table tennis player. He competed for Nigeria at the 2012 Summer Olympics, 2016 Summer Olympics, and 2020 Summer Olympics, reaching the quarter-finals in 2016.[2]
He is the first African player to be ranked top 10 in the world.
At the World Cup 2014, he reached the quarter-finals in the Men's Singles competition.[3]
In the 2017 ITTF World Challenge Bulgaria Open, he advanced to the semi-finals, where he was defeated in a tight match by the eventual winner Dimitrij Ovtcharov. Aruna is known for his forehand-oriented playing style, which gets him many winners. He is a Gewo-sponsored player.
In 2014, he was ranked number 30 in world table tennis, and the International Table Tennis Federation named him the Star Player of the year.[4][5] He was also part of the Nigerian team that won bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.[6]
At the club level, Aruna Quadri recently teamed up with TTC RhönSprudel Maberzell Fulda, a top club in the German Bundesliga Table Tennis.