Kristian Karlsson

Career

World Table Tennis Championships

2021 World Table Tennis Championship: 1st place—Gold (Men’s Doubles)

2018 World Table Tennis Championships: 3RD place—Bronze (Men’s Team)

European Table Tennis Championships

European Championships 2022: 3rd place—Bronze (Men’s Singles), 1st place—Gold (Men’s Doubles)

2019 ITTF European Championships: 3rd place—Bronze (Men’s Team)

Liebherr 2018 ITTF European Championships: 3rd place—Bronze (Men’s Singles), 2nd place—Silver (Men’s Doubles)

2016 ITTF European Table Tennis Championships: 3rd place—Bronze (Men’s Doubles)

2015 European Table Tennis Championships: 3rd place—Bronze (Men’s Doubles)

2014 European Team Table Tennis Championships: 3rd place—Bronze (Men’s Team)

2012 European Table Tennis Championships: 2nd place—Silver (Men’s Doubles)

Play Style

Kristian Karlsson is well known for his offensive/attacking style of play. As the most prominent style of play, it encourages the player to initiate the first attack before their opponent can do so. Playing with this game style requires the player to have enough skill and tactics to convert the ball from control confrontation to topspin confrontation in each aspect of the game. Some of the advantages of this game style include the following:

• Excellent serve and return game
• Very quick—gives opponent little time to react
• Allows for a smooth transition from forehand to backhand
• Creates a good short game
• Good forehand topspin against long under-spin balls

Part of improving his game involves using the right backhand rubbers. When you want to shortlist the options that will help improve your own game, our article, 6 best backhand rubbers, is well worth looking into.

Teachers and Influences

While Karlsson has had numerous coaches over the years, he attributes much of his early success and foundational training to Ulf Carlsson and Fredrik Hakansson in Halmstad BTK. He also emphasizes that implementing what you learn and continuously striving to improve yourself is key to achieving your goals.

Advice for Aspiring Players

In an interview with Expert Table Tennis, Karlsson offered this advice to young, aspiring players:

“My first piece of advice would be to play table tennis because you want to for yourself, not for anybody else. If you’re doing it for somebody else (parent, coach, etc), you’ll not be able to practice as well as you’d like or feel the happiness you deserve to feel. Secondly, my strongest piece of practice advice is that the tough training sessions are the ones that matter the most at the end of the day. The practices when you feel like everything works, it’s not very hard to fight in those sessions. Fight with yourself when things don’t feel so good, that’s key! Thirdly, believe in yourself. You are much better than you think, and you are capable of doing things you don’t even know of. Stay humble but never lose track of what you can do.”