Cheered on by national team captain Jörgen Persson, who himself reached the Olympic semi-finals in singles in 2008, Truls Möregårdh continues to take scalps in Arena Paris Sud 4.
Omar Assar has often been a ghost for the Swedish table tennis men. The 33-year-old Egyptian knocked out Mattias Falck in the Olympics three years ago and also has two victories against Möregårdh, including in last year’s WC.
But this edition of Truls Möregårdh seems like no one can shake it. It’s the same vibes as when he took a sensational World Cup silver in Houston three years ago.
It’s already crazy now, even if it doesn’t get a medal, says Möregårdh after Thursday’s quarter-final victory.
It feels a bit like Houston when it really got ping pong fever. What I have done here is absolutely incredible, I am super proud of it. I hope to make Sweden so proud that I can even win a medal.
Saved several set points
Unlike the round of 16 against Kao Cheng-Jui, where the 22-year-old Swede was sore in both head and body after the island walk against world number one Wang Chuqin earlier that day, Möregårdh was on the chopping block directly in the quarter-finals.
He took command with an early four-point lead and quickly went up 10–5. He then missed two set points but managed the third to take the set 11–7.
Assar won the second set 11–6 after finishing by winning six straight balls, but then came two sets that would decide the match – and they were almost identical.
Brazil awaits
In both the third and fourth sets, they basically won every second point, and then exchanged chances to decide. Omar Assar had two set points in each set, Truls Möregårdh saved them all.
And took the lead with 3–1 thanks to two thrilling set wins with 14–12.
Ugh, it’s so hard just thinking about those sets. There were no funny balls. It’s so good in the last of them, that he does two simple things that you shouldn’t do there, a return in the net and then also the next one in the net.
It broke Assar. The fifth set was a display by Truls Möregårdh who went up 8–0 before the Egyptian took his first point of the set, but it didn’t matter.
11–2 ended the set that secured a place in the semi-finals.
A 28-year-old from Rio de Janeiro now stands between Möregårdh and an Olympic final.
In Friday’s semifinal, starting at 2:30 p.m., the Brazilian world number six Hugo Calderano awaits. Victory there and Truls Möregårdh secures the first Swedish Olympic medal in table tennis since Jan-Ove Waldner’s silver in 2000.
In the second semi-final, the second-seeded Chinese Fan Zhendong and the French home hope Félix Lebrun will meet.
Now it’s super-underdog mode again. The three that remain are big favorites against me. I am super proud, no matter how it goes, I will be very happy about what I have achieved, says Truls Möregårdh.