Defeating Nigeria is mission accomplished - Egyptian tennis star

 

Nigeria table tennis men's team lost 3-2 to fiercest rivals Egypt on Wednesday in the final of the 2016 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Africa Senior Championship holding in Morocco.

The Nigerian team was represented by Olympic veteran Segun Toriola, quarter-finalist at the Rio games Aruna Quadri and Bode Abiodun. In a release by ITTF-Africa, the game lived up to its billing as both teams went neck and neck right from the off before the Egyptians finally nicked it at the end.

One of the stand out performance of the day was Mohamed El-Beiali who came from 2-0 down to beat Toriola 3-2. One of the Egyptian men's team players Ahmed Saleh described the win against Nigeria as mission accomplished.

He said “We knew from the start of the match that Segun Toriola is a dangerous player and we planned that we could take the lead 2-1 and hoping that Omar Assar would defeat Aruna Quadri in the fourth game.  Unfortunately Omar Assar lost but we were confident that Mohamed El-Beiali would deliver and I am so happy that he did it for us. This victory is sweet because that was our main mission in Morocco to reclaim our men’s team title which we lost to Nigeria at the 2015 African Games in Congo Brazzaville. I am so happy that I am part of this team and I will cherish this victory for a long time.”