The elimination of the Swedish men’s team from the top 8 was on Wednesday 21/02 the main news from the 6th matchday at the World Table Tennis Team Championships in Busan, Korea.
The 5-time world champion, current European champion and number 6 of the competition was defeated by Chinese Taipei 3-2 in the round of 16 and was left out of the quarterfinals. In the surprises, the Danes, who, although they started their journey from the 3rd series of the groups, today achieved two more victories in the knockouts and entered the top 8.
For the women, there were also two rounds in the table of “32” and the main feature is that the 8 national teams entered the quarter-final round, which had won 1st place in the same number of groups yesterday 20/02.
It should be noted that the teams of the 8th round also got the ticket for the team of the Paris Olympic Games, which is why there was emotion for many athletes after the end of the 16th round. The action continues tomorrow Thursday, when the countries that will secure a place in the medals will be determined.
After progressing through five days of group matches, the first-ever World Cup, held in the Republic of Korea, moved into the knockout stages on Wednesday. 24 men’s and 24 women’s teams had qualified, a table of “32” was formed and the first 8 favorites of the games had a bye in the round of 16.
Sweden, the country that has become very strong again on the international scene in recent years with the bronze medal at the World Team Championships in 2018, but also two silvers in the men’s singles (with Falk and Meregaard) and a gold in the men’s doubles (with Falk/Carlsson). in the singles, she led Taipei 1-0 and 2-1, but fell 3-2. And the two wins by left-hander great Li Yun-ju may have been normal, but the loss came the hard way for the Scandinavians when Zheng-Zhui Cao defeated Matthias Falk 3-0 in sets and allowed him… to take just 12 points overall !
The match between Denmark and Slovenia was also decided in the five individual games. In the end, Tobias Rasmussen defeated Peter Hribar with a 3-2 set and sent the Scandinavians, who had also eliminated Hungary 3-1 earlier, to the quarterfinals.
In the women’s group, the match between Chinese Taipei and India gained more interest in the pairings of the round of 16. Taipei was under pressure from the team, which in the premiere had scored two individual victories against the title holder and 1st Olympian China, but… escaped with a score of 3-1 and entered the 8th. Hosts Korea fell behind 1-0 to Brazil, but took the next few matches without dropping a set.
The results in the round of 16, as shown on the scoreboard:
In men:
China-Romania 3-0
Japan-Austria 3-0
Denmark-Slovenia 3-2
Korea-India 3-0
France-Poland 3-0
Portugal-Croatia 3-1
Chinese Taipei-Sweden 3-2
Germany-Iran 3-0
To women:
China-Thailand 3-0
Korea-Brazil 3-1
France-Portugal 3-0
Germany-Sweden 3-0
Chinese Taipei-India 3-1
Hong Kong-Poland 3-1
Romania-Egypt 3-0
Japan-Croatia 3-0
The quarter-final pairings, as shown on the scoreboard:
To men:
China-Japan
Korea-Denmark
France-Portugal
Germany-Chinese Taipei
To women:
China-Korea
France-Germany
Chinese Taipei-Hong Kong
Romania-Japan
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