After losing to Sora Matsushima in straight sets in his last Group 6 match at the Galaxy Arena in Macao, Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna was eliminated from the ITTF World Cup.
In just 17 minutes and 35 seconds, the world number eight outplayed Quadri Aruna, who needed to win to maintain his hopes after losing the first match.
Matsushima won the match 12-10, 11-3, and 11-5, controlling the entire match and preventing the Nigerian from advancing to the next round.
After losing 3-0 to Tomislav Pucar in their previous encounter, when he was defeated 11-4, 12-10, and 11-6, Aruna was under pressure going into the match. He needed to respond forcefully after the setback, but he had trouble establishing a rhythm against Matsushima.
The Japanese sensation scored 34 points to Aruna’s 18, scoring 20 points on his own serve and giving up just seven.
Despite a brief run of five straight points, Aruna only got 11 points on serve and seven on return, giving up a lot in both phases.
The loss prolongs a challenging period on the international front and validates Aruna’s early departure. The 37-year-old has now lost ten straight games in important international competitions. He has only won one of his previous 14 games, most recently in September 2025 against Huang Youzheng.
Tomokazu Harimoto, Truls Moregardh, Omar Assar, Patrick Franziska, Anders Lind, Simon Gauzy, Ovidiu Ionescu, Liang Jingkun, Zhou Qihao, and Felix Lebrun have all recently been defeated.
After his performance in Dusseldorf in 2014, Aruna is still the first African to advance to a World Cup quarterfinal. He leaves Macao to focus on the World Team Table Tennis Championships in London later this month, ending Nigeria’s campaign there.
