World Championships | 29 Apr 2018

Mixed emotions for Sweden at the beginning of the Championships

LIEBHERR 2018 World Team Table Tennis Championships

 

Teams of Sweden tasted mixed success in the opening day of the LIEBHERR 2018 World Team Table Tennis Championships. Men’s team beat Romania, whilst women’s team suffered by the hands of players from Singapore. In both matches, both selections showed very good performance.

 

Kristian KARLSSON beat Ovidiu IONESCU to warm up enthusiastic crowd and to fired up already great atmosphere in Halmstad Arena.

 

 “I feel incredible. This is the start we needed. I hope we can continue like this. The crowd helped me a lot, I enjoyed it! We try to take advantage on it,” said KARLSSON.

 

Mattias KARLSSON also enjoyed the chance to play at home soil. He beat Hunor SZOCS in four games.

 

“I am really happy about this start and about my performance too. It is special to play at home and I will give my best.”

 

Adrian CRISAN stretched Jon PERSSON to full five games, but Swede did not give chance to audience to enjoy one more match.

 

 “There is always a little bit of pressure when you play at home but it is better to take advantage of it. Anyway, it was a nice feeling to play here. We want to pass the group stage and then the goal will be to reach a medal,” said PERSSON.

 

On the other side, their female compatriots managed to force Singapore to go full five matches, but eventually suffered defeat. Driving force in Sweden’s team was Matilda EKHOLM. She beat both FENG Tianwei for 2:2 in five games, and prevailed earlier against YU Mengyu for 1:1 in another five games thriller.

 

“I am not really sure how I made comeback against FENG Tianwei. I got a lot of help from the spectators. I started to find my way after the second set. I just played with inspiration. I didn’t want to lose 0-3 in front of this crowd,” said Matilda.  “It was first time that I play against Yu Mengyu opponent so I didn’t know what to expect. At the beginning I didn’t manage to play my tactic but hopefully I did it at the end. I am very pleased of my performance.”

 

Linda BERGSTROM and YU Mengyu, both admitted they were nervous.

 

“Actually I was a bit nervous because it is the first time I play on this court and because I lost the first set,” said Linda.