Matthias Falk (until 2019, Matthias Karlsson [3] , Swedish. Mattias Falck ; born September 7, 1991 , Karlskrona ) is a Swedish table tennis player . Participant in the 2016 Olympic Games , multiple winner of the World and European table tennis championships.
 Matthias Falk | |
|---|---|
| Floor | |
| Citizenship |  Sweden |
| Date of Birth | September 7, 1991 (aged 27) |
| Place of Birth | Karlskrona , Sweden |
| Game hand | right [1] |
| Grasp | European [1] |
| ITTF Rating | |
| Highest ITTF Position | 9 (June 2019) [1] |
Content
Sports career
The first success on the international stage came to Matthias Falk (then still under the name Karlsson [3] ) in 2008, when he won three gold medals in singles in the tournaments of the youth world series “ ITTF ”.
In 2011, Falk won the first double at the ITTF World Tour in Poland. In the same year, he took part in the Swedish team in the European Championship and received a silver award in the team tournament, as he was declared a member of the team (Falk himself did not play a single game for the team, but did not win medals in other categories) [4] .
In 2012, at the European Championships in Herning, he won the silver medal in doubles and in subsequent years he won silver and bronze medals in doubles and mixed doubles at the European Championships .
In 2018, at his home world championship in Halmstad , he won a bronze medal as part of the Swedish team.
At the end of 2018, Matthias changed his surname Karlsson to Falk , taking the surname of his wife [3] .
In 2019, at the World Championships in Budapest, Matthias Falk won the silver medal in singles, becoming the first Swedish player to qualify for the World Cup finals in singles since 1997, when Jan-Uwe Waldner succeeded [3] [5] [6] . In addition, Falk received the award of the German club Swaythling Club International for this championship "Richard Bergmann Fair Play Award" ("Fair Bergman Fair Play Award") [5] .
In June 2019, Matthias Falk for the first time entered the top ten best players in the world according to the ITTF rating [1] .
Game Style
Matthias Falk is right-handed, playing an attacking style with a European grip. The technique of his game is unique in that on the right (on the open side of the racket) he uses short spikes (in modern table tennis at a high level of playing with European grip, if they use short spikes, then on the closed side of the racket) [7] [8] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Profile of Matthias Falk on the ITTF official website
- ↑ Singles victories in ITTF sponsored competitions: World Cup, World Cup, ITTF World Tour , ITTF World Tour Grand Finals
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Silver of Matthias Falk: A Major Achievement for Europe
- ↑ Archive of the European Championship 2011 , see Teams.html - Participants in teams.
- ↑ 1 2 Budapest revisited: heroes only
- ↑ Mattias Falck receives hero's welcome in Halmstad
- ↑ Proving a thousand flowers can still blossom, Mattias Falck and He Zhuojia
- ↑ May 6, 2019 - Playing Against Short Pips on the Forehand
Links
- Mattias Falk's profile on the ITTF official website
- Matthias Falk rating dynamics on the ITTF official website