Olympic Games heroes Anton Källberg and Truls Möregårdh won their quarterfinal against the Polish pair Maciej Kubik and Milosz Redzimski with 3–1 in sets (11–9, 11–8, 3–11, 13–11) in Linz, Austria.
For Mattias Falck and Kristian Karlsson – the duo that took World Championship gold in 2021 and European Championship gold in 2022 – it was a tough quarterfinal against the German pair Dang Qiu/Benedikt Duda.
"It's clear it's big"
The Swedes lost the first set, but then took two in a row before the Germans took the match to a deciding set. There, Falck/Karlsson took an early grip and secured five match points.
The Germans saved two match points, but on the third, Karlsson scored the decisive point for victory with 3–2 in sets (9–11, 11–6, 11–7, 8–11, 11–7).
Now the Swedish stars will face each other in the semifinal.
It's clear it's big. We couldn't have done better, so far. We cleared it two years ago in the last European Championship as well. For my part, it's revenge, says Anton Källberg to SVT.
Källberg – then in pair with Jon Persson – lost the 2022 semifinal against Karlsson/Falck.
I think they should take on the favorite role as reigning champions and very, very good doubles players. So we're at a disadvantage, says Källberg.
The teams that lose in the semifinal will share the bronze, which means that Sweden has secured at least a bronze and at most a silver.
Eliminated for the women
It's over for Linda Bergström and Stina Källberg in the women's doubles tournament. The Swedish duo lost to the Czech-Slovak pair Hana Matelová/Barbora Balázová with 0–3 in sets (8–11, 7–11, 10–12) in the quarterfinal.
For Linda Bergström, Stina Källberg, Truls Möregårdh, and Anton Källberg, there are more matches waiting on Saturday.
The quartet will play in the round of 16 in the singles tournament and then the semifinal in the doubles for the four Swedish men.
Corrected: In an earlier version, the wrong phase of the singles tournament was stated. The correct phase is the round of 16.
