by Ian Marshall, Editor

The 31 year old, who won the Men’s Singles event when the tournament was staged in Helsingborg in 2012, faced DPR Korea’s Ham Yu Song, a player of not a too dissimilar stature.

On the ITTF World Tour, on home soil in 2016, Ham Yu Song reached the semi-final stage of the Men’s Singles event; more pertinently earlier this in neighbouring Korea Republic, he progressed to the Men’s Singles second round and secured the Under 21 Men’s Singles title.

In a hard fought duel, thoroughly appreciated by his supporters in the Eriksdalshallen, Hampus Nordberg emerged successful in six games, a contest in which his power counted.

“I knew he was a good player because he won the Under 21 event in Korea, I always try to watch my opponent before a match, so I watched the video of him winning in Korea. He had a strange rhythm to his backhand, it took time to adapt. He was safe but not powerful, he had good control, if I could become involved in forehand to forehand top spin rallies I always felt I had too much power for him. I think also my receive of service improved but in the sixth game I was down 8-4 and 10-6 before eventually winning.” Hampus Nordberg

Success for Hampus Nordberg and for a player from the well-known Soderham Club; some two hours north of Stockholm, he plays alongside the likes of Viktor Brodd, Jens Lundqvist and Jon Persson.