Kenya’s Mutua beats South African Shane in Tunis

Brian Mutua of Kenya recovered from a 1-3 defeat by Fanny Kokou Dodgy of Togo to beat Overmeyer Shane of South Africa 3-2 in the second ITTF Top 16 preliminary game of the Africa 2020 Tokyo Olympic qualifiers at the Stade Dr Rades in Tunis.

Mutual beat the South African 11-8 in the first set, and lost 8-11 and 10-12 in the second and third. The Kenyan however, recovered to win the last two sets 11-8.

REDUCE MISTAKES

“I tried to reduce the mistakes I made in the match against Dodgy and I'm glad my game plan worked out. I hope to beat Saleh Ahmed of Egypt who is a very experienced player," said Mutua, adding:

“I realised I was losing too many services but I improved as the match progressed,” he added.

In the match against Dodgy, Mutua rallied from a set deficit to win the second set 11-6. But after a few service errors, he lost the last two sets (11-6, 11-7) losing the match to the Togolese.

"I tried my best, to thwart his attacks but service issues spoilt my game plan,” he said.

Earlier, Ahmed who is the Group 2 top seed beat Overmeyer 3-0 (11-3, 11-6, 11-5). Europe-based Nigerian Aruna Quadri also started off his campaign for Olympic ticket after beating local Hmam Adam by straight sets.

TOKYO OLYMPICS

The event, which is the equivalent of the Africa Cup of Nations in football, is featuring 16 of the best men and a similar number of women.

Egypt's Dina Meshref, who is Africa's finest female player, defeated Nigerian Bello Fatimo 3-1.

The Africa Trip 16 Cup ends Wednesday to pave way for the Africa singles and mixed doubles Olympic Qualification Tournament on Thursday through to Saturday.

Top four players in the men and women’s singles will qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.