Falck missed the opportunity to repeat the silver feat from the last World Cup in singles. Now it was a double revenge and also with his best friend Kristian Karlsson. So happiness was total when they maneuvered out world setter Fan Zhendong in pairs with Wang Chuqin.
It started otherwise tough for the Swedes. After winning their respective sets, Falck and Karlsson had four good positions, 10–7 and 11–10, to get a 2–1 lead.
Fan and Wang still managed to get out of the Swedes’ grip and win by 13-11,
– We fought back. We were better in the short game, where much of the key to winning lies and we had a very good defense, said Mattias Falck.
The last two sets were owned by the Swedes in total, went from 3-3 to 9-3 in the fourth and in the fifth from 3-1 to 10-4 before the match ball was won.
The Swedish wait on medal in men’s doubles has been long, the last time was 1997 when Jan-Ove Waldner and Jörgen Persson took silver.
But the Swedes are not happy yet.
In the semifinals, there will be Chinese opposition again, Lin Gaoyuan and Liang Jingkun.
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