World Championships | 28 Apr 2019

Silver medal for Mattias FALCK

LIEBHERR 2019 ITTF World Championships

 

Ma Long clinched a third consecutive World Championships Men's Singles title following the success in 2015 and 2017. In today’s final of the Men’s Singles Event at the LIEBHERR 2019 ITTF World Championships he overcame Mattias FALCK (11-5, 11-7, 7-11, 11-9, 11-5).

 

No European player has ever beaten an adversary from the People’s Republic of China in a men’s singles final at a World Championships, but that does not diminish FALCK’s achievement. He showed remarkable performance in Budapest throughout the tournament and he showed brave face and put MA Long under severe pressure in the final.

 

“Just give me one more year. I will be closer. I improved my tactics and I made a big step forward. Today I also learned that not only tactics and skills works in Ma’s favor. He is very clever player, who can adjust to all,” said Mattias.

 

The importance of the match was underlined by way they both were prepared for the match.

 

“Our President, Liu Guoliang helped me with the preparations, whilst on the other side Jorgen PERSSON worked with FALCK. Two World champions were involved, which tells a lot about how important this was, “said MA.

 

MA added that he expects that Mattias will be China’s main adversary in the future.

 

“He improved his game a lot. I played against last year in Halmstad and it was far from what he showed here.”

 

Mattias confirmed that he played the best table tennis in his career.

 

“My shape was perfect and I was very aggressive,” said FALCK.