Gunnar Oberg

[Mr. RicharD]

Gunnar Oberg a Swedish player that beat Waldner

Hey guys, it's a rare occasion but we have a club member that once beat J.O. Waldner in the Swedish Junior events in the 70's. It's awesome to play him and had he not grown 8 inches during his youth he may have played professionally, but being 6' 10" when you're 18 kind of means you're playing Basketball or Volleyball for the most part. It's great to play him and pick his brain though. He has so much insight of the Swedish training system back then.

 

[Mr. RicharD]

Bump. I'd like to see what people think of this guy. He hasn't played competitively since the 70's.

 

[WiWa]

He looks like a recreational player to me. No standard technique or footwork. Not too much talent either I'd think, but I could be wrong. Assuming he is the tall guy in the black shirt

 

[Mr. RicharD]

As far as technique goes he played in the 70's so his technique isn't modern. The player in red is about 2000 at the U.S. level and plays with pips. Gunnar just started picking up a paddle after not having played since the early 80's I would say if he got back into playing he could be about the 2100 U.S. level.

 

[krro]

That looks like 7 or 8 divison out of 9 in Sweden. Not very high level.

 

[Mr. RicharD]

He was a top junior in Sweden when he was 15-17 and he has a winning record against Waldner when they were were both cadets and juniors. I posted this a while ago, but it was just a fun video I wanted to post. I'm not saying he is world class here. Just saying he is a very interesting player and he's actually not that bad. I would agree that for a 50 year old he's playing at that division level, but when he was a junior I'm sure he would have been much better. Had he not grown so much (he was 6' 6" or 1.98 m by the time he was 14) maybe we'd all be talking about him instead of one of the other Swedish players.

Just a fun thought.