Was it the turn of the century that we experienced at Arena Paris Sud 4 on Wednesday evening? It was something in the horse way, always.
Truls Möregårdh, Kristian Karlsson, and Anton Källberg had already written blue and yellow Olympic Games history just by reaching the semifinal. After Wednesday evening's victory over Japan, the Swedish men's team is awaiting the final on Friday, likely against the dominant force in table tennis, China.
And it was a victory that flies straight into the category of Swedish Olympic Games classics.
I actually don't know what happened. I'm in shock, says Truls Möregårdh.
Kristian Karlsson was the one who made sure it didn't become a dull and short evening for the Swedish part. The 33-year-old is seen as one of the world's best doubles players. He's also decent in singles, it turns out.
Heavy Underdog
It was win or bust for Karlsson against Shunsuke Togami after Japan started with two wins: in doubles and in the opening singles (Tomokazu Harimoto against Möregårdh).
And Karlsson won, 3–1 in sets against the highly ranked Japanese despite being down 0–1.
The opportunity to level the score to 2–2 in matches was not missed by Truls Möregårdh. Hiroto Shinozuka did what he could, but was ultimately helpless, 3–1 to Möregårdh.
What remained was a fifth and decisive match between Anton Källberg and Japan's number one, Tomokazu Harimoto.
A match to write books about.
To turn it around against Harimoto in that way... I don't know, says Jörgen Persson.
Incredible Turnaround
Källberg looked long to be without a chance. Harimoto went mercilessly to 5–0 in both the first and second sets, won both clearly (11–5, 11–5), and then, three hours into the match, parts of the audience gave up.
Hope they had something important to do, because they missed the completion of a rarely seen turnaround.
Källberg suddenly found his rhythm, won the third set with 11–7, and then played the ping-pong of his life. The fourth set ended with a new 11–7 win, and suddenly everything was open.
In the fifth and decisive set of the fifth and decisive match, Källberg fell behind 3–6. But the entire Swedish ping-pong team is running on rocket fuel in Paris.
He won five straight points – the stands shook – before Harimoto won three and went up to 9–8.
Källberg had an answer to that too, won two straight and secured match point.
At 11:34 pm on Wednesday evening, world star Tomokazu Harimoto slammed his fist into the air. The feat was a fact.
It's an incredible evening that I'll remember for the rest of my life, says match hero Källberg.
