Two years ago, Sweden's men's national table tennis team won the team European Championship at home in Malmö. Then, Truls Möregårdh played a decisive role, but the world's sixth-ranked player was forced to withdraw from this year's championship in Croatia.
An overstrained knee is preventing the double Olympic silver medalist Möregårdh from playing.
When Turkey was waiting in the first group stage match, national team captain Marcus Sjöberg chose to rest veteran Kristian Karlsson, who arrived in Zadar late on Saturday. Karlsson took Olympic silver in the team event last year with Möregårdh and Anton Källberg.
He's doing well. There are no problems. He just needs to get a little time to get into the team, said Sjöberg to SVT before the match.
”Key match”
Another veteran, 34-year-old Mattias Falck, started by defeating Turkey's singles number one Abdullah Yigenler (ranked 175th in the world) 3–1 in sets with the numbers 17–15, 13–11, 9–11, 11–4.
The first match at a championship is always a bit nervous, said 104th-ranked Falck to SVT.
Källberg, 17th in the world rankings, followed up with a 3–1 win over Ibrahim Gündüz.
Elias Ranefur, who replaced Karlsson, could then secure the 3–0 win for the blue and yellow team by beating Tugay Yilmaz 3–0 in sets (11–6, 11-5, 11–8).
I was ready to play, it felt natural and it felt good, said Ranefur to SVT.
On Monday, the Czech Republic awaits the Swedish men.
The Swedish women also got off to a strong start at the European Championship and won 3–0 against Greece. The team lost only one set in the three singles matches. Stina Källberg started by defeating Elisavet Terpou in three straight sets, 11–9, 11–5, 11–5.
”Very nice”
Filippa Bergand was in trouble at the start against Aikaterini Toliu, lost the first set and was behind 8–10 in the second. Then she turned it around and Bergand won 7–11, 12–10, 11–4, 11–4.
Then the Swedish number one and anchor Linda Bergström, 30, finished by defeating Ioanna Gerasimatou in three straight sets, 11–8, 11–8, 11–9. Bergström is tenth in the European rankings.
Very nice, good to close both my match and the team match with 3–0, said Bergström to SVT.
The Swedish women's team, which enters the championship as the fifth-ranked nation, will face Austria on Monday in their second and final group stage match. The women's national team reached the quarterfinals at the European Championship in Malmö in 2023.
