Friday evening's quarterfinal in Croatian Zadar became a prolonged fight between Sweden and Romania.
After four matches, the score was 2–2 and the only thing left was the meeting between Kristian Karlsson and Romania's number one Eduard Ionescu.
Karlsson gained a small grip when he, despite a set ball against him, won the highly dramatic and extremely important third set, 12–10, to take a 2–1 lead.
”It's unacceptable”
In the fourth set, Karlsson saved three set balls before he had to give up, 9–11.
The fifth set in the fifth match had to decide.
Karlsson gained an early grip and it held until 8–5. But Ionescu won five straight balls to 10–8 and two match balls. Karlsson saved the first, but not the second – and Romania could rejoice.
Terrible, that's how I feel right now, says Karlsson to SVT.
Of course, we are disappointed and it's unacceptable. There's not much else to say.
Källberg won double
It was Anton Källberg, Sweden's number one when injured Truls Möregårdh is absent, who on his own saw to it that there was a fifth and decisive match at all.
Källberg won the first match against Eduard Ionescu with 3–1 in sets. Then followed losses for both Kristian Karlsson (1–3 against Iulian Chirita) and Elias Ranefur (1–3 against Ovidio Ionescu) – and all pressure was therefore on Källberg in the fourth match.
Källberg quickly went up to 2–0 in sets against Chirita, but the Romanian came back to 2–2 and at that point Sweden was only one set away from being eliminated.
Then Anton Källberg showed class and coolness. He won the decisive set with 11–8 and forced the decisive match between Karlsson and Ionescu.
There came the loss that means Sweden cannot defend the gold from the European Championship in Malmö two years ago.
Saturday's semifinals: Germany-France and Romania-Slovenia.
