They applauded Jun Mizutani as he left the arena and with an almost
equal ovation they applauded Jörgen Persson as he followed the Japanese
star out of the arena.
The applause for Jun Mizutani was because
he had given a fine display to beat the veteran Swede in four straight
games in the third round of the Men’s Singles event at the H.I.S. World
Championships in Yokohama on Friday 1st May 2009.
The applause for Sweden’s Jörgen Persson was one of respect.
Persson was playing in his last World Championships, his last tournament.
No Motivation
"The motivation has gone", said Persson. "I made a big effort to play in the Olympic Games but now it’s time to finish."
Now, is that true?
Volkswagen 48th World Championships
In
2005 in Shanghai at the Volkswagen 48th World Championships, Persson
announced his retirement after losing to Germany’s Timo Boll; he went
to coach in Qatar at the Aspire Centre but after the contract in Doha
ended, the lure of competition proved too great.
Defeat against
a left hander in Shanghai signalled what was not to be the end, defeat
in Yokohama against another left hander has again signalled the end but
is it for real.
Definite
"Yes,
this time it’s true, it’s definite", said Persson emphatically who left
the arena with many happy memories of playing in Japan.
"Eighteen
years ago I won the Men’s Singles title at the World Championships in
Japan", he reminisced. "Japan is special for me;, I have a special
relationship with the people here."
Advice
Equally, they feel they have a special relationship with him and in generous mode he had words of advice for Jun Mizutani.
"He’s
good but if he is to beat the Chinese he needs a strong weapon, his
forehand needs to be more powerful", said Persson. "Nevertheless, he’s
young, 19 years old, he has time."
Thanks
Certainly that is the situation, as for Jörgen Persson the time is up, a fantastic career is at and end.
Thanks
for the memories, thanks for the immense contribution made to the sport
of table tennis, thanks for simply being the one and only Jörgen
Persson.
Source: www.ittf.com
