JAN-OVE WALDNER, 38, from Sweden, fell at the semi-final stage of the men’s table tennis singles event yesterday afternoon, bringing to an end the most stunning sequence of results in the history of the sport. Having defeated Ma Lin, of China, and Timo Boll, of Germany, both heavily fancied for gold, the ageing maestro could not quite quell the fiery aggression of Ryu Seung Min, 22, from South Korea, who will now play Wang Hao, of China, in today’s final.
Waldner had arrived in Athens considered a spent force, having rarely won a match of significance since surprising the world with a silver medal in the men’s singles in Sydney in 2000. Even his most ardent admirers were pessimistic about his prospects of winning his opening match. But the player who has spent the better part of two decades defying expectations had other ideas. His victories over Ma and Boll, where he raised his game to breathtaking levels of all-round virtuosity, brought the giddying prospect of a third Olympic final.
The semi-final hinged on the third game, with the players locked in a battle for geometrical supremacy. Waldner, desperate to prevent the youngster from deploying his quick forehand topspin, took to risking progressively more acute angles on the backhand diagonal. But to no avail. The youngster’s footwork was a triumph of leg strength and manoeuvrability and, having sneaked the third at 11-9, he raced away to a 4-1 victory.
Waldner has been an iconic figure in the sport since reaching his first leading final in the European Championships in 1982. He is perhaps more of an artist than a sportsman, his genius having been revealed not in his performances but in the creativity that inspired them. Always looking to push back the boundaries, he changed the nature of the sport with technical and tactical innovations that have subsequently become accepted wisdom.
Wang Hao, who defeated Wang Liqin, his compatriot, in the other semi-final, now carries China’s hopes of a clean sweep in the table tennis events. Yesterday Zhang Yining, the world No 1, defeated Kim Hyang Mi, from North Korea, to add the gold medal in the women’s singles to those won by China in both the women’s and men’s doubles.