by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor

Success for Viktor Brodd and Hampus Nordberg, on what was their second outing of the year, far exceeded their previous excursion.

In January they had been on duty in Budapest at the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Hungarian Open; they did not reserve a main draw place, they were beaten in the concluding preliminary round by the combination formed by Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna and Egypt’s Omar Assar (11-7, 11-9, 4-11, 8-11, 11-7).

“An amazing feeling; we have won the Swedish National Championship twice, three years ago and this year; now this tournament. I think this much important. In the Zagreb final we were better with serve and receive.” Viktor Brodd.

A more satisfactory outcome for Viktor Brodd than his one previous appearance in a Men’s Doubles final at an open international tournament, for Tomas Konecny it was the same outcome.

On the ITTF World Tour in 2009 partnering Czech colleague, Dmitrij Prokopcov, Tomas Konecny had experienced defeat at the final hurdle in opposition to Austria’s Christoph Simoner and Mathias Habesohn.

“Important was winning the first game in the final, 11-9; we have played together for some seven or eight years, so we know each other very well.” Hampus Nordberg.”

More recently runners up spot had been the outcome when Viktor Brodd had partnered Denmark’s Kasper Sternberg in Bulgaria; the pair had suffered in the title deciding contest when facing the Korean combination of Cho Eonrae and Kim Donghyun.

Overall for Hampus Nordberg it was his second career title at an ITTF Challenge Series tournament.

In 2012 in he had won the Men’s Singles title on home soil in Helsingborg when beating colleague Andreas Tornkqvist in the final. Now five years later he won again, not against a Swede but in partnership with a Swede, in harness with Viktor Brodd.