The 2023 Stupa European Team Championships will not only decide the best table tennis team in Europe, but also seek answers to bridging the gap with the Chinese — a continuous endeavour of the rest of the world. As the continent’s best players battle each other in Malmö, Sweden, from September 10-17, their combined competitiveness will try to raise the level of their games so as to match the large gap left between players from China and the others.
The stark difference is visible from the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) rankings, in which the world No. 1 and 2, Fan Zhendong (6,855 points) and Wang Chuqin (6,285), have built a substantial lead over the third-ranked Ma Long (3,645). The lead becomes more admirable considering Ma Long is regarded as probably the greatest player of all time. Five Chinese players feature in the top 10 rankings, with the highest ranked European being Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov at No. 10.
While admitting that the world’s top two are way ahead of the rest of the field, Sweden’s Mattias Falck believes there is not much of a gap between the rest of the players. The 20th-ranked Falck is part of the five-member men’s Swedish team led by their highest ranked player (world No. 13), 21-year-old Truls Möregårdh. The hosts are attempting to win their first team title in the competition since 2002. Germany and France are the other main contenders as Sweden tries to recapture its position of pre-eminence in the sport it last had in the late 1980s, '90s and through the 2000s.
Sweden’s current coach Jörgen Persson was part of their golden generation of table tennis together with Jan-Ove Waldner and Mikael Appelgren that has since not been replicated. In 2019, Falck became the first Swedish finalist at the World Championships since Waldner in 1997 though he lost to Ma Long in the final. Möregårdh was also a finalist in 2021.
“It’s difficult to get a generation like that,” says Persson, over a video call. “We played for a long time (Waldner played internationally for three decades, Persson for more than 25 years). We are still a small country. It’s takes 30-40 years to get so many top players.”
“They compare us sometimes with tennis here. Tennis had a golden era like ours (TT). But now we are back — we have four top 40 players (Anton Kallberg is No. 21, Kristian Karlsson is No. 38) while tennis is still struggling — they don’t have even one player in the top 100,” he says, smiling. “We are back on track. It’s good that there are more players. If there are only one-two good players, the sport does not develop.”
Persson credits the Chinese for their knowledge and that a lot of former players remain involved with the sport as coaches. Besides, they prepare for the major championships with three-four week-long training camps. In contrast, many of Sweden’s top players were playing in the German Bundesliga this week till a few days preceding the European Championships.
“Players are playing in teams and it’s important because they make money but sometimes, we are playing till quite late and cannot prepare before a big championships,” says Persson. “That’s a task for the rest of the world too. Like before the Olympics and the World Championships, you have time to prepare. China always have that.”
“They (China) have a lot of players and they start young compared to Europe especially,” adds Falck. “They have so many players of different styles. Back in the days, Jörgen and Waldner used to say that the Chinese tried to copy their play style to adapt better to European games.”
“It’s important to play a bit different to be able to compete with the Chinese,” adds the 32-year-old who recently won a WTT (World Table Tennis) Contender event in Rio de Janeiro. “They are super strong. We need to be smart, clever really, practice hard, read the game really well and play a bit different.”
TT players get some help from analytical tools that companies like Stupa Sports Analytics provide. Falck uses it to study the opponent’s first ball, service received and first attack, “to know the player I will face in the match. After that it gets harder to control. The service is the only stroke you can control.”
Persson looks at videos to check if players are doing something special when the match gets close, like 7-7, 8-8. Some players may try a long service at the time or make the same kind of plays. “You don’t want to say something wrong to your player (about the opponent),” he says laughing. “The challenge is if you say something and the other guy is not doing that...”
He adds, “You should not depend on them (data) too much because when you are in the box, decisions have to be made in short, quick time and you never know what your opponent is going to do a hundred per cent of the time.”
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