Spurred on by national team captain Jörgen Persson, who himself reached the Olympic Games semifinal 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 players. The 33-year-old Egyptian knocked out Mattias Falck in the Olympic Games three years ago and has also won twice against Möregårdh, including in last year's World Championship.
But this version of Truls Möregårdh seems unbeatable. It's the same vibes as when he took a sensational World Championship silver in Houston three years ago.
It's crazy already now, even if it doesn't become a medal, says Möregårdh after Thursday's quarterfinal win.
It feels a bit like in Houston when it really became table tennis fever. What I've done here is completely incredible, I'm super proud of it. I hope to make Sweden so proud that I can even take a medal.
Saved several set points
Unlike the round of 16 against Kao Cheng-Jui, where the 22-year-old Swede was down in both head and body after the match against world number one Wang Chuqin earlier the same day, Möregårdh was on the attack from the start in the quarterfinal.
He took command with an early four-point lead and quickly went up to 10–5. He then missed two set points but converted the third and took the set with 11–7.
Assar won the second set with 11–6 after winning six straight points, but then came two sets that would decide the match – and they were almost identical.
Brazilian awaits
In both the third and fourth sets, they won almost every other point, and then exchanged chances to decide. Omar Assar had two set points in each set, Truls Möregårdh saved all.
And took the lead with 3–1 thanks to two thrilling set wins with 14–12.
Ugh, it's so tough just to think about those sets. There were no fun balls. It's so good in the last of them, that he does two simple things that you shouldn't do there, a return into the net and then also the next into the net.
It broke Assar. The fifth set became a demonstration by Truls Möregårdh, who went up to 8–0 before the Egyptian took his first point in the set, but it didn't matter.
The set ended 11–2, securing a spot in the semifinal.
A 28-year-old from Rio de Janeiro now stands between Möregårdh and an Olympic Games final.
In Friday's semifinal, starting at 14.30, awaits the Brazilian world number six Hugo Calderano. A win there and Truls Möregårdh secures the first Swedish Olympic Games medal in table tennis since Jan-Ove Waldner's silver in 2000.
In the other semifinal, second-seeded Chinese Fan Zhendong meets French home hope Félix Lebrun.
Now it's super-underdog again. The three who are left are big favorites against me. I'm super proud, however it goes I'll be very happy about what I've achieved, says Truls Möregårdh.
