Mattias Falck (; né Karlsson) (born 7 September 1991) is a Swedish

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

player.

Career

He competed at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

as part of the Swedish team in the men's team event. Mattias won two medals at the

2016 European Table Tennis Championships The 2016 European Table Tennis Championships were held in Budapest, Hungary from 18–23 October 2016. The competition was held at Tüskecsarnok. Medal summary Men's events Women's events Mixed events Medal table References

{{Europ ...

. Paired with

Matilda Ekholm Matilda Ekholm (; born 15 June 1982 in Linköping) is a Swedish table tennis player. She has won four medals in European Table Tennis Championships The European Table Tennis Championships is an international table tennis competition for the na ...

he won a silver medal in mixed doubles, and paired with

Kristian Karlsson Kristian Gunnar Karlsson (; born 6 August 1991) is a Swedish professional table tennis player. Career Born in Trollhättan, Västra Götaland, Karlsson started to play table tennis in his hometown club at the age of 8. He remained in Trollhätt ...

he won a bronze medal in men's doubles. He won the Swedish National team championship with Halmstad BTK 2018 same years as he was a part of the Swedish National team who won a bronze medal at WTTC 2018 which was played in Halmstad Arena (the same arena where Halmstad BTK won gold a month later). In April 2019, he won a silver medal in the men's singles competition during the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

, after losing the final to

Ma Long Ma Long (; born 20 October 1988) is a Chinese table tennis player and the reigning Olympic singles champion. Widely regarded as the greatest table tennis player of all time, he is the first and only male player to complete a career Double Grand ...

from China. Falck's highest world rank was 7th, attained in August 2019. In 2020, Falck upset Xu Xin at the WTT Macau event in ITTF's restart campaign following the coronavirus pandemic.

2021

In March, Falck was upset by Dimitrij Ovtcharov in the quarter-finals of the WTT Contender event at WTT Doha. He was upset in the round of 32 by An Jaehyun in the WTT Star Contender event. In June, Falck reached the semi-finals of the European Table Tennis Championships, where he was upset in the semi-finals by eventual champion

Timo Boll Timo Boll (, ; born 8 March 1981) is a German professional table tennis player, who currently plays for Borussia Düsseldorf. He is ranked second in the German Table Tennis National League, and fifteen in the ITTF world rankings as of October 20 ...

. Falck had a disappointing Olympics, losing in the round of 16 in the singles event to

Omar Assar Omar Assar (born 22 July 1991 in Desouk) is an Egyptian table tennis player. He won silver in singles and gold in team play at the 2011 Arab Games in Doha. He also competed at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics in the Men's singles, but was def ...

. In the team event, Sweden defeated USA in the first round 3–1, but Falck was upset Kanak Jha. Sweden lost to Japan in the quarter-finals after Koki Niwa upset Falck in the fourth round. Niwa later stated that Falck's forehand was not in good condition. Falck and

became World champions in the men's doubles at the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships becoming the first Swedish duo to win gold since 1991.

Playing style

Falck plays with short pips on his forehand. He has stated that his style benefited from the switch to the plastic ball and that he was surprised that more men with pips have not emerged since the ball switch.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Falck, Mattias 1991 births Living people Swedish male table tennis players Olympic table tennis players of Sweden Table tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics People from Karlskrona Table tennis players at the 2019 European Games European Games medalists in table tennis European Games silver medalists for Sweden Table tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics World Table Tennis Championships medalists Sportspeople from Blekinge County 20th-century Swedish people 21st-century Swedish people