Källberg/Karlsson had 2–0 in sets against France's Prithika Pavade/Simon Gauzy and were only one set win away from Sweden's first secured medal in Linz. Then the blue-yellow duo collapsed, lost three straight sets, and saw the semifinal go up in smoke after 2–3 in sets (11–8, 11–7, 4–11, 9–11, 8–11).
Earlier on Thursday, the French pair had also knocked out Sweden's other mixed doubles team, Linda Bergström/Mattias Falck, also after a tough five-setter.
For Kristian Karlsson, the dream of a European Championship medal in doubles is still alive. On the men's side, he is the reigning European Champion with Mattias Falck, and it was a good start to the championship for the two.
Falck/Karlsson advanced to the quarterfinals after a clear 3–0 in sets (11–8, 11–9, 11–6) against Ukraine's Anton Limonov/Jaroslav Zhmudenko.
Truls Möregårdh and Anton Källberg also advanced after defeating the Danish-Croatian pair Anders Lind and Andrej Gacina with 3–0 in sets.
The Swedes were close to throwing away the first set, despite several set points, but eventually won with 14–12. In the second, it was a new narrow set win, 12–10, before Möregårdh/Källberg got better flow in the game and took home the third with 11–4 for secured advancement.
