The 26-year-old Swede, who took VM silver in 2021, had 0–8 in head-to-head meetings with Wang Chuqin, 24 years old, Olympic champion in mixed doubles together with Sun Yingsha as recently as on Tuesday.
Möregårdh had only taken three sets in total in the eight lost matches.
Now he made the performance of a lifetime and won with 4–2 in sets, 12–10, 11–7, 5–11, 7–11, 11–9, 11–6.
I'm still in shock and it feels completely crazy, he says a long time afterwards when he meets the Swedish press in the mixed zone.
He had to wait for three days for the match after the victory in the first round over the Belgian Cedric Nuytinck.
Triggered by the chatter
But those days allowed hope to grow and a tactical plan to emerge. The chatter about a nightmare draw triggered the Eslöv player.
A bit like that, I felt that everyone thought it was over and they started talking about the team event, he says.
The tactical genius move was to bring out a special serve – which he doesn't actually rate very highly.
It's actually the worst serve I have. I called Malte (brother and coach) too and said that I'm going to use that serve. I've watched a lot of video and he doesn't really like that spin. He had problems with it, says Möregårdh and explains it as the less common of two different sidespins.
I usually use 25 different serves in a match, now I used one, sometimes without spin at all, he tells.
Strong comebacks
The Swede took home the first two sets, after having been behind in both.
A good start was the key and the Chinese was shaken.
Wang equalized, but Möregårdh continued to play varied, utilizing his serve and was ice-cold.
Not even when the Chinese approached with two consecutive turnarounds in the fifth set – edge ball and net roll – did Möregårdh waver.
It was a bit cracking, I had 2–0 in his serve when I had messed up two sets and felt that I could go for it. But I really kept calm, he says.
With mom and dad in the stands, Möregårdh felt the support – now he hopes that his girlfriend Leah Muskantor will come to Paris too.
We almost have to fly her in now. I want to have everyone here, but when we saw the draw it looked tough, he explains.
Both Malte Möregårdh and Leah Muskantor are on their way to Paris.
I'm sitting on the train on my way to the airport with Malte, says Muskantor to Aftonbladet.
The next match, the round of 16 against Kao Cheng-Jui, Taiwan, is played already tonight, at 8:00 PM.
