July 27, (THEWILL) – Tuesday’s events at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, brought an end to Nigeria’s participation in the male and female single categories of the tennis events in the ongoing global sports showpiece with the elimination of the last athlete standing, Africa’s best Quadri Aruna, who lost 4-2 to Brazil’s Gustavo Tsuboi.
The third round exit for Aruna ranked below his performance at the 2016 Rio Olympics where he knocked out the fifth seed Taiwan’s Chuang Chih-yuan 4-0 in the second round without dropping a single set and with his unorthodox playing style, for what was arguably the biggest upset of the tournament.
Aruna went further that year to record a second upset against world renowned German player, Timo Boll, whom he defeated 4-2 to earn a spot in the quarter-finals. It was at the quarter-finals stage that he lost 4-0 to the eventual winner, the Chinese player Ma Long.
It was a memorable match and proved to be an entertaining quarter-final for tennis fans following the game. Long pushed Aruna to play a defensive style from the back of the table. Their fan-favourite encounter therefore provided some memorable rallies and Long went on to take the gold.
In the Tokyo event on Tuesday, Aruna could not find the spark to push his Brazilian opponent beyond a 4-2 loss. It was starkly similar to his elimination in the 2012 London, England, Summer Games where he bowed out in the second round.
As the highest ranked African in competition, there was much hope in Nigeria’s progress towards the latter stages of the Games, with the ardent objective of a medal run. He was also the last hope for Team Nigeria in the table tennis event and he began with that sense of responsibility, taking the first set 15-13.
Brazil’s Tsuboi rallied back to take the next set 11-9 in a tight encounter before following it up with a much easier 11-6 in the third. Nigeria’s medal hopeful was not going to let the Brazilian go that quickly and was rewarded for his hard work with an 11-7 fourth set victory.
But that was as far as Aruna could go before Tsuboi triumphed in the last two sets 11-7 and 11-6 to stamp a final seal on the complete elimination of Team Nigeria from the entire Olympic tennis event.
THEWILL recalls that another table tennis representative in the men’s singles Olajide Omotayo also crashed out after defeat to Tiago Apolonia of Portugal in the first round. In the women’s singles, veteran table tennis star Funke Oshonaike and Offiong Edem have been eliminated as well, as THEWILL reported.
This closes the curtain for medals in tennis for Nigeria and will go down as one of the most unspectacular participations of the country in the event because, where before these athletes could impress as underdogs and their victories at the early rounds celebrated as achievements with low expectations, much more was expected of them as experienced Olympians.
They have, however, exited without much in terms of achievements nor have they been able to inspire tennis fans with their performance.
The early elimination of the entire cast of tennis players will become part of the final report of the Games and as uninspiring as it was, there is enough in the playing careers of tennis stars like Aruna, who remains a continental icon, and Oshonaike, who was inducted into the exclusive Club 7, to inspire a new generation of tennis stars and future Olympians.
This new crop of tennis stars, ought to be identified at a young age through school-sponsored sports festivals, will need to gain from the experience and progress of stars like Aruna and Oshonaike while being backed up by projects like the “Adopt-An-Athlete” initiative of the Honourable Minister of Youth and Sports Development to become tomorrow’s champions.
That has been the functional playbook of leading sports nations and the Olympic leaderboard also bears witness. This is not new to the sports bodies in Nigeria but there is the urgent need to move from knowing what to do to implementing institutional changes to bring this knowledge to work for the progress sought.
Until this becomes a radical part of the country’s preparation for these global sporting events, the Team Nigeria athletes will be considered only as part of the filler nations and not as serious contenders the way D’Tigers are considered as they have put in the works to earn that consideration.
It is a lesson to implement –and as fast as possible.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
