Nigeria’s only medal hope in the men’s singles of the table tennis event here at the Rio Olympics, Aruna Quadri, continued his fairytale run as he qualified for the quarter-finals after defeating Timo Boll from Germany 4-2 on Monday.

Quadri has thus become the first African to reach the men’s singles quarter-final in Olympic history.

Quadri took the first three sets 12-10, 12-10 and 11-5 at the Riocentro-Pavilion 3 as he closed in on another big win.

 However, Boll bounced back to claim the fourth and fifth sets 11-3 and 11-5.

But Quadri eventually prevailed after clinching the sixth set 11-9, to advance into the last eight.

CEOAFRICA source  reports that Quadri would now meet Long Ma from China who is ranked number one by the International Table Tennis Federation on Tuesday.

To get to the quarter-finals, Ma beat South Korea’s Youngsik Jeoung 4-2.