Nigeria’s Mati Rules At ITTF Egypt Junior Open

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As a debutant, 12-year-old Taiwo Mati was not intimidated by the pedigree of his opponents and even when he was not seeded, he played with a lot of determination and this indeed paid off for him as the Ondo State-born star won two gold medals at the five-day tournament.
Mati, who was awarded the Most Improved Player gong at the 2017 ITTF Challenge Nigeria Open last August, showed his class against the Egyptians and Tunisians to emerge as champion in the cadet and Hopes Boys singles events.
The National Youth Games single champion was any world ranking and not seeded in the competition but he advanced to the final.
In front of the Egyptian fans, Mati defied all odds to account for the exit of Egypt’s Youssef Ehab in the semi-final stage of the Cadet Boys’ Singles event (11-5, 11-8, 13-11), and he continued his fine form against Tunisia’s Youssef Ben Attia, the top seed, in a hard fought full distance encounter to secure the first prize (11-7, 11-3, 13-15, 11-9, 11-7).
Notably Youssef Ben Attia was in form; in the penultimate round he had beaten Congo Brazzaville’s Regis Kiassi, the no.3 seed, in four games (11-4, 11-6, 10-12, 12-10).
Impressive in the Cadet Boys’ Singles event, in the Hopes Boys’ Singles, in the latter rounds Taiwo Mati had dominated proceedings as he ended Egyptian hopes. At the semi-final stage he had beaten Yassin Wael (11-6, 11-9, 11-8), prior to reserving the top step of the podium by overcoming Moamen Salaheldin (11-1, 14-12, 11-6). In the counterpart semi-final contest, Moamen Salaheldin had accounted for colleague, Mohamed Anany (11-9, 11-5, 10-12, 4-11, 11-7).
The Ondo State-born star said he was inspired to excel at the tournament following the inspiration has drew from Aruna Quadri.
“I have taken my time to watch Aruna Quadri, I noticed that he is very hardworking and very humble. He plays with a lot of confidence regardless of the pedigree of his opponent. These are some of the qualities that I made us when I was in Egypt and I just hope I can continue to compete at international level,” Mati added.


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