Big nightmare message for Jan-Ove Waldner that changes everything: “Completely devastated and very sad”

It would be Jan-Ove Waldner’s big comeback to table tennis.
But now everything has been destroyed.
– Jan-Ove Waldner is completely devastated, says Nils Marius Otterstad to SVT.

Just as tennis has the Laver Cup, where old icons are invited to settle on the tennis court, table tennis would also have its variant. Swedish icon Jan-Ove Waldner became the big initiator of the Waldner Cup.

Tough for Waldner

The plan was that the very first edition of the tournament would be organized this year and big names like Timo Ball, Ma Long and Truls Möregårdh had been invited. But now the nightmare news has arrived that changes everything for JO.

There will be no competition this year and it has been postponed indefinitely.
– Unfortunately, we have to postpone the tournament. This is an overall assessment that we have made in view of the intensive game schedule and an Olympics that is at the door where the players must be able to prepare in the best way possible, says the tournament’s CEO Nils Marius Otterstad to SVT Sport.
– It is incredibly sad. Jan-Ove Waldner is completely devastated and extremely sad.

Exposed to criticism

The tournament has recently received criticism for its clear connection to China. But that is not one of the reasons why the Waldner Cup is cancelled.
– It has nothing to do with this and it is not true that we received money from China. The great thing about this tournament in the current geopolitical times was to be able to show that sport is dialogue across borders, Otterstad explains to the TV channel.

The plan was to arrange the competition between 23-26 November and that the arrangement would be that Team World meets Team Asia. The Swedish Table Tennis Association is positive about the initiative, but due to this year’s EC on home ground, they have not been able to help.
– Who doesn’t want to collaborate with Jan-Ove Waldner, perhaps the best of all time, but this year they arrived too late and we were busy with the EC. But look forward to working together in the future, says the Secretary General Thomas Buza in a statement.

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