By Daily Sports Nigeria on April 16, 2025

Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna will face a familiar foe on Wednesday (today) as he seeks to end a four-match losing streak against Sweden’s Anton Kallberg in a decisive group stage clash at the 2025 ITTF World Cup in Macao, China, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

Aruna is aiming to reach the knockout stage of the showpiece event for the first time since 2014. PUNCH Sports Extra previously reported that he opened his campaign with a 3-1 victory over Benin Republic’s Abdel-Kader Salifou, despite struggling with a hamstring issue.

The victory has set up a high-stakes meeting with Kallberg, who dismantled Salifou 4-0 on Tuesday to go top of Group 16.

However, history does not favour the Nigerian, as the Swede has dominated their recent head-to-head encounters, winning in their last four meetings, including two straight-set wins in Macao.

Their most recent clash came in October 2024 at the China Smash, where Kallberg won 3-1 (11–4, 6-11, 11-8, 11–9), dropping only one set. Before that, in September, also in Macao, Aruna fell 3-2 in a tightly contested battle (11–4, 4–11, 13–11, 8-11, 11–2), despite rallying impressively in the middle sets.

Their earlier meetings underline the world number 16’s authority, as he defeated Aruna in straight sets (11–8, 11–9, 11–9) at the 2022 WTT Champions Macao, and again 3-2 in their longest match to date at the WTT Contender Tunis in 2021, where the scores swung dramatically before ending 3-2 (10–12, 11–7, 8-11, 11-5, 4-11, 11–7, 11-7) in favour of Kallberg.

Still, Aruna remains confident and focused ahead of Wednesday’s match.

“I will prepare. It’s one match after the other. I plan to relax on Tuesday and see how it goes. I lost to him in our last three meetings, but I hope to get my revenge this time,” Aruna said, reflecting on what could be a turning point in his World Cup journey.

Kallberg, sitting top of the group with a superior points record, acknowledged the rivalry and promised a well-researched approach to maintain his edge. “We’ve played quite often in the last few years and know each other well. I’ll review our past matches and prepare accordingly,” he said.

Elsewhere, African interest remains high as Egypt’s trio Hana Goda, Dina Meshref, and Omar Assar continue their push for knockout qualification. Goda will face Austria’s Sofia Polcanova, while Meshref takes on China’s Man Kuai in their final group ties.

Assar, who only began his campaign on Tuesday, made a commanding start with a 4-0 win over Cameroon’s Ylane Batix. He next faces South Korea’s An Jaehyun in a must-win encounter.

“All the players in the tournament are very strong, so there is no easy draw. I’ll do my rituals and fight for every point,” Assar said after his victory.

Meanwhile, the tournament is over for Egypt’s Mariam Alhodaby and Mohamed El-Beiali, as well as Salifou and Batix, who each suffered their second group-stage defeats on Tuesday.

Source Punch Ng

Posted April 16, 2025

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