Today, the World Championship in table tennis begins, and a topic of discussion among them before the tournament is the red color of the tables at the Lusail Sport Arena in Doha, Qatar.
It will be a bit special. This will be the first competition with a red table, no one has played on a red table before, says Truls Möregårdh.
Stop table?
Different balls and different types of tables – where the ball glides more or less on the surface – are other factors for the world's best ping-pong players to take into account when they compete.
Plus the climate in the hall.
There are glide tables and stop tables, where the ball stops more and it becomes less spin. At the Olympic Games, we thought it would be super stop, but then it was something in between when we were in Paris. The hall probably compensated a bit, says coach Malte Möregårdh.
Möregårdh took double Olympic silver last summer – in singles and team – and is ranked as number seven in the world ahead of the World Championship
Many have talked about the Swede getting a dream draw since he can meet the Chinese world number two Wang Chuqin first in a potential semifinal. The world number one Lin Shidong, China, is on the other side of the playoff tree and can wait first in a potential final.
I'm not blind. I also see that there's no Chinese player who is number one or two in the world, says Truls Möregårdh.
At the same time, there are hardly any easy matches for anyone at a World Championship or a world tour event at the highest level. If it becomes, for example, quarterfinal, Tomokazu Harimoto, Japan, is likely to wait.
"Creepy serve"
Andreas Levenko, Austria, is Möregårdh's opponent in Sunday's first round in the singles tournament.
Levenko is not a fun match either, because he has a very creepy serve, says Truls Möregårdh and continues:
But in the end, I can't sit and say I'm the underdog. It's a relatively fine draw.
Möregårdh's first World Championship match will be on Saturday when he enters the doubles tournament with Anton Källberg.
The Table Tennis World Championship in Doha, Qatar, takes place from 17 to 25 May and features singles, doubles, and mixed doubles.
Here are the Swedes' initial matches on Saturday:
Singles, men: Kristian Karlsson–Lubomir Jancarik, Czech Republic, Anton Källberg–Mohamed Elbeiali, Egypt.
Doubles, men: Anton Källberg/Truls Möregårdh–Marcos Madrid/Rogelio Castro, Mexico.
Doubles, women: Linda Bergström/Stina Källberg–Kim Nae-Yong/Lee Eun-Hye, South Korea.
Sunday:
Mixed doubles: Kristian Karlsson/Stina Källberg–Anton Limonov/Solomiya Brateyko, Ukraine.
Singles, men: Mattias Falck–Santiago Lorenzo, Argentina, Möregårdh–Andreas Levenko, Austria.
Singles, women: Källberg–Huang Yi-Hua, Taiwan, Filippa Bergand–Adriana Diaz, Puerto Rico, Bergström–Solomiya Brateyko, Ukraine.
Doubles, men: Karlsson/Falck–Antoine Razafinarivo/Fabio Rakotoarimanana, Madagascar.
