When Truls Möregårdh won the Europe Smash a year ago, he became the first European to win a tournament of that stature on the world table tennis tour.
When he was supposed to defend his title at home in Malmö Arena, things went completely wrong for the 24-year-old. The 37-year-old German Dimitrij Ovtcharov won 11-9, 11-3, 11-8.
“Pretty bad”
"It's sad that it ended so quickly and in a rather bad way. There are heavy feelings," says Truls Möregårdh.
"It was almost impossible for it to be as fun as last year. I had a lot to lose," he continues.
However, he did not feel any major pressure himself.
A little, of course. But above all, I was just really excited to play the competition again. It would be a lot of fun and I was looking forward to it a lot, says the world number two and continues:
It's a bit hard to put into words and understand right now how it could have gone so wrong. But it's something you have to try to figure out.
Ovtcharov is a good friend of Möregårdh and they have often trained together, but the 37-year-old showed no mercy when he was pitted against the tournament's blue-and-yellow poster name.
Möregårdh led 9-5 in the first set, but Ovtcharov won six straight points and took the set 11-9.
“Bad all the way through”
The struggle continued in the second set. Ovtcharov won the set 11-3 and then led 8-4 in the third set. Then Möregårdh woke up and tied the score at 8-8, but the defending champion did not get any closer than that. The German won two match points and sealed the set 11-8 and the match 3-0.
It really hit my legs. I moved a lot worse than I can. I also served and returned a lot worse than I can, so it was really bad all the way through, says Truls Möregårdh.
