Just woke up to watch the Sweden vs Japan matchup.
Best team match so far and an amazing comeback for Sweden. They deserved it more for having a deeper team.
Feel bad for Harimoto. Tough ask to have to beat both Truls and Kallberg to carry your team. Guy deserves at least a medal in this Olympics. Still has a chance to get one but he needs to get over the disappointment of this loss.
teams is harsh.
you can't always expect your number 1 to carry 2.
the safest bet is always to have a winning doubles (which jpn has), and the remaining 4 singles, to have 2 players that can get min 2, and maybe 3.
match 3 was the problem here. as leaving the pressure to deciding match probably influenced what has happened
another part was luck of draw, if HT had to finish off at M4, maybe the fate would of been different.
so, to sum it up, you need some one else to win singles.... .can't rely on doubles + no1 winning 2 singles all the time.
and as in WTTTC 2022, HT did those 2 singles, but Japan still lost 3-2 to China.