Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri became the first-ever African to reach the quarterfinal of the World Table Tennis (WTT) Contender Series in Doha, Qatar after he batted past Portugal’s Joao Geraldo in the second round.

Quadri followed up his 3-0 thrashing of Indian national champion Sathiyan Gnanasekaran in the opening round with a masterful showing to see off Geraldo in five sets, triumphing 10-12, 12-10, 12-10, 4-11, 11-6 at the Lusail Sports Arena on Thursday.

The victory sets up a last-eight clash against Chinese Taipei’s Yun-Ju Lin on Friday.

Africa’s top ranked player had said he hoped to use the $200,000 event as preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics World Singles Qualification Tournament at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiya Arena in Doha, Qatar between 14-17 March 2021.