The top table tennis players in the world congregated in Sweden on August 14 for the World Table Tennis (WTT) Europe Smash 2025, hoping to bring a championship trophy back home. And now that the tournaments are over, each trophy is in the hands of its respective winners.
And after a historic victory on Sunday, the men’s singles tournament trophy won't leave the country where its recipient earned it.
Swedish superstar Truls Möregårdh (Men’s Singles No. 5) defeated China’s Lin Shidong in a thrilling 4-3 match (11-8, 8-11, 12-10, 11-8, 4-11, 11-13, 11-9) to win the WTT Europe Smash 2025 men’s singles tournament. Möregårdh became the first European to win a WTT Grand Smash event, an accomplishment he earned in his home country against the best men’s singles player in the world.
“I’m so happy to live here and to achieve this title at home soil,” Möregårdh told reporters after the match. “It’s just crazy to think about. I’m so grateful for everyone who is around me.”
Möregårdh struck first, winning the first game 11-8 before Lin won their next bout by the same score. Möregårdh then took the next two games in back-and-forth fashion, overcoming multiple deficits and even a rolled ankle to lead the match at 3-1.
But Lin trounced Möregårdh in their fifth game. He led by as many as 7 points, and never once trailed his opponent in his 11-4 victory. Moregardh kept their sixth game very close, but it wasn’t enough to stop Lin from winning 13-11 and tying the match up at three games apiece. The winner of this seventh game would become the last men’s singles player standing.
Both players played impeccable table tennis before Möregårdh reached championship point with a 10-9 lead. Möregårdh could not leave any room for Lin to come back on this rally. He aimed to make sure of that by giving Lin some of the hardest smashes he had ever delivered in this tournament.
Lin wasn't going to go down easy. Each time the ball soared past Lin's head, he would scurry over to it and hit it right back to Möregårdh. Möregårdh would smash the ball right back, and Lin would dart over and return it. Neither of these two players were ready to give up. The crowd murmured, gasped and shouted every time Möregårdh smashed the ball until one of Lin's returns sailed a little past Möregårdh to end the game.
As Möregårdh smiled, the entire stadium erupted in euphoric celebration.
“He made it tough for me after [I went up] 3-1,” Möregårdh told reporters after the match. “To lose the sixth game, and then to play good in the last game, it’s just thanks to the people who were there cheering for me. I really took their energy to my advantage.”
This victory earned Möregårdh 2,000 points in ITTF’s most recent world rankings update following the tournament, good enough to jump from No. 7 to No. 5.
The difficult road to earning this championship did not begin with Lin. Möregårdh couldn’t have made it to the final match without defeating some of table tennis’ biggest stars, including An Jae-hyun (No. 14) in the quarterfinals and Benedikt Duka (No. 8) in the semifinals.
The next major WTT tournament will begin on September 2 at the Table Tennis Center ADD in Almaty, Kazakhstan for the WTT Contender Almaty 2025. The event will last until September 7 and will crown winners in men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
Whether or not Möregårdh will win another WTT Grand Smash remains to be seen. But winning this first trophy in front of the people he’s proud to share a home country with makes making history even more satisfying.
“They did so much to help me, but every day, they are so nice to me,” Möregårdh told reporters after the match. “[They] always come up to me and speak about table tennis and how great it is, and that they have started to play because of me and stuff. So they are really, like, the nicest people in the world.”
*All ITTF rankings are as of Week 35, updated on Aug. 26 2025
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