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Jan-Ove Waldner from Sweden return to China's
Kong Linghui and Hao Wang during their table tennis men's doubles
third round match at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games August 18, 2004.
Persson and Waldner won and move on to quarter finals.
(Reuters)
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Swedish veteran paddler Jan-Ove Waldner
accomplished a "mission impossible" in the Olympic table tennis tournament
on Wednesday as he ousted three top-seeded Chinese players in both singles
and doubles within one single day.
"It was an unbelievable day, a fantastic day,"
said Waldner after he beat China's world No. 2 player Ma Lin 4-1 to book a
berth in the singles quarterfinals
Wednesday evening.
"I had lost many tough matches to Ma. It has been many years since I
beat him (last time)," he added.
Earlier on Wednesday afternoon, Waldner and his
partner Jorgen Persson also outclassed
Chinese pair Kong Linghui/Wang Hao 4-1 for another
quarterfinal berth in the doubles.
The two victories for the Swede have dealt a heavy blow to the
all-mighty and ambitious Chinese, who had come to Athens in pursuit of
another clean sweep of all four Olympic golds for tabletennis, just as
they did in Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000.
The European home crowd in the Galatsi Olympic Hall in northwest
Athens, who had cheered the Swede on throughout the match, hailed their
hero and rose from their seats to salute him as he walked out of the
court.
"It's unbelievable when you come to the hall. It's perfect to have such
a supporting crowd, and I think they're coming back tomorrow, maybe also
on Friday," said Waldner with a big smile.
The first "grand
slam " winner of singles titles at world championships,
World Cup and the Olympic Games in the table tennis history, the
39-year-old Waldner has become a table tennis legend,especially for his
long-time confrontation with the Chinese paddlers.
"Waldner has beaten three generations of Chinese players," said Swedish
team coach Peter Sternburg with a lot of pride. In China, where table
tennis is called the "national sport", Waldner is almost a household name
for his incredibly winning record against the Chinese players.
Many Chinese paddlers, including Atlanta Olympics singles champion Liu
Guoliang who is now coaching the Chinese men's team, became famous at home
after they beat Waldner in major tournaments.However, they also suffered
many bitter losses to the Swede.
"They (the Chinese) nearly have everything, so if someone beat them
once or twice, it's good for the sport," said Waldner after his Wednesday
wins.
"And you still have two (players) in the quarterfinals, Wang Liqin and
Wang Hao, so it's only one who lost," he added, as if trying to console
the Chinese fans who would definitely feel shocked at their players'
losses.
Asked about how he could manage to keep himself in such a good form for such
a long time, both Waldner and his coach said that there was no secrets
except hard training and concentration in the matches.
"He is good at motivating himself and in the past
month before the Olympic Games, he had practiced unbelievably hard,
unbelievably good," said Peter.
"One week
before the Games I told him that I believe he will go very far, very
far in the tournament,"said Peter.
Waldner said that his participation in a European training campin
Italy, which attracted all European ace players including reigning world
champion Werner Schlager, Timo Boll of Germany and Vladimir Samsonov of
Belarussia, helped him a lot in his preparations.
"I had a perfect training camp in Italy. Good European players and I
feel that I was in very very good shape. I could practice full (there),"
said the Swede.
This was already the fifth Olympic Games for Waldner, who started to
play at the Games since Seoul 1988 and was crowned singles champion in
Barcelona 1992.
"I haven't played games like this for years. The last time I played
like this in doubles was 7 or 8 years ago, for singles it was also 3 or 4
years," said Waldner.
So does that mean he will take the singles gold once again after 12 years?
The Swede denied, saying: "My goal here is just to take one medal in
doubles or singles, but there is still a long way, a long long way."
Waldner will take on Timo Boll, the European champion who beat Werner
Schlager for a place in the last eight.
The Swede gave a "phew!" when he learnt this news from some reporters. Asked
to predict the match result, he said: "What can I say? Like in the
matches we played before, I think there is a little favor for Boll to win
the match."
"But I think it will be a very good match for the spectators," he
added.
(Agencies) | 
Updated: 2004-08-19 14:09