Truls Möregårdh Advances to Second Round at China Smash in Beijing

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Truls Möregårdh Advances to Second Round at China Smash in Beijing
Photo: Johan Nilsson / TT

Table tennis star Truls Möregårdh is moving on in the major tournament China Smash in Beijing. An injured Kao Cheng-Jui, Taiwan, could not disturb the world's fifth, I am sorry for his sake, says the Swede after the victory with 3–1 in sets.

Truls Möregårdh won the latest grand smash tournament of the world tour, which was held on home soil in Malmö at the end of August.

Now he is on to the second round of China Smash in Beijing.

Can win 1.3 million

I celebrated for a long time. It was a very fun week. I want to do the same thing here, this is the coolest table tennis country in the world, says Möregårdh in the victory interview in SVT's broadcast.

The players took one set each easily, but in the third, Kao suffered an injury. Möregårdh won the set, but then a longer injury break awaited before the fourth could start. Then Kao, 40th on the world ranking, could not do himself justice.

We could see that Kao had a serious injury, it's never fun to see. I'm sorry for his sake. It looked like he felt a lot of pain in every shot. It was not a fun match to play, says Möregårdh, who won with the numbers 11–3, 4–11, 11–6, 11–5.

In the next round on Tuesday, Egyptian Omar Assar awaits. The winner of the singles tournament in Beijing – the fourth and last grand smash tournament of the year – takes home a prize check of over 1.3 million kronor.

Karlsson on

For Anton Källberg, it stopped directly. Källberg fell in the first round against the Chinese Yuan Licen, who won with 11–9, 11–4, 13–11.

There, Licen will meet Kristian Karlsson on Tuesday, who in the first round knocked out Youssef Abdelaziz, Egypt, with 3–1 in sets (11–9, 10–12, 11–8, 11–8).

No Swedish female player managed to qualify for the singles tournament. On Tuesday, Stina Källberg and Kristian Karlsson will play the round of 16 in mixed doubles and will then face their compatriot Mattias Falck, who plays with Barbora Várady, Slovakia.

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By TTEnglish edition by Sweden Herald, adapted for our readers

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