Sweden’s Latest World Singles Finalist
At the recent World Championships in Budapest the Yasaka player Mattias Falck qualified for the men’s singles quarter final by beating the Korean player Lee Sangsu, World ranked no. 6. Mattias won the match with 4 – 1 in sets.
In the quarter final Mattias played the French number one, Simon Gauzy. Mattias showed a lot of power and self confidence and won quite comfortable, 4 – 1 in sets.
With the win in the quarter final Mattias secured a medal. It is the first Swedish medal in men’s singles since Jan-Ove Waldner took the bronze medal 1999.
In the semi final Mattias met the young rising star An Jaehyun of South Korea. After a very hard and thrilling match Mattias finally won, 4-3 in sets. He was the first Swedish player since 1997 (J-O Waldner) to reach the men’s singles final.
In the final Mattias played against the two-time defending World Men’s Singles and Olympic Ma Long, China. It was a tremendously exciting 5 game match with Ma winning 4-1.
Mattias has been Yasaka player since he started to play table tennis. In June 2018 Mattias and Yasaka signed a new contract, valid for four years.
During the summer 2018 Mattias also married with Julia Falck, and he changed his name from Karlsson to Falck.
Some “historical fact” about Mattias:
Mattias Karlsson, born September 7, 1991, began to play table tennis at the age of seven years. His mother club is Lyckeby BTK which is situated in Karlskrona, in the south of Sweden. Mattias is an offensive player, using pimples out rubber on the forehand side and backside rubber on the backhand side.
Mattias is the only Swedish player that has captured 3 gold medals in the Swedish Junior Championships, winning 3 titles in a row 2007 – 2009.
During 2008 Mattias made his International break through, winning 3 World Junior Circuit tournaments, in Hungary, Venezuela and France.
For couple of years Mattias studied and practiced table tennis in the school and training center in Köping.
Mattias has been playing several years in the highest leagues in Sweden and France, and for the season 2019-20 he will represent Bremen in the German league.
Mattias is using the rubbers Yasaka Rakza PO (FH), Yasaka Rakza X (BH) and the blade Yasaka Ma Lin Soft Carbon.
Tomas Berner, European Distributor for Yasaka, and Mr. Yaoita, owner of Yasaka, Mattias Falck (top row), Judy and Ryan Hoarfrost of Paddle Palace (bottom row)
