The achievement is that they won the men’s singles title at the World Championships by beating the player against whom they had lost in the immediately preceding final; the striking factor is that it always involved a fellow member of their national team!

In an all Hungarian affair in 1931 in Budapest, in the final, Victor Barna lost to Miklos Szabados (21-13, 24-22, 21-14), the following year in Prague, Victor Barna reversed the decision but it was close. He needed the full five games to emerge successful (21-19, 14-21, 16-21, 21-18).

Defeat avenged, it was the same for Toshiaki Tanaka. In 1956 in Tokyo he was beaten in the final by Ichiro Ogimura (21-13, 22-24, 21-18, 18-21, 21-13); one year later in Stockholm they met again. Toshiaki Tanaka prevailed in convincing fashion (21-11, 21-18, 21-19). Notably, it was the last occasion the World Championships were held on an annual basis as opposed to biennial.

Dortmund and Chiba

Now fast forward to Dortmund in 1989, in the final Jörgen Persson lost to Jan-Ove Waldner (21-17, 21-18, 20-22, 18-21, 21-10); two years later in Chiba, Jörgen Persson turned the tables, he prevailed in straight games (21-19, 21-18, 21-18).

Jörgen Persson remembers…

“Losing in the final of the men’s singles at the World Championships in Dortmund in 1989 was a tremendous disappointment. It was the only singles match that I lost in the whole tournament. I had played 22 matches in the team event, a further six in the singles and I had won every match. Reaching the final of a World Championships may only happen once in your lifetime and when you lose such a match, you wonder if you will ever have another chance; thankfully I did.

The second chance came two years later in 1991 when both Jan-Ove Waldner and myself reached the final in Chiba. Before the final in 1989 both Waldi and myself had practised together; however, I took may father’s advice. He told me that even though your final opponent may be a great friend and member of the your team, you should not practise with a player who you are going to play against immediately prior to a match as important as the World Championships.

Waldi wanted to practise with me but I took my father’s advice and I declined the request. The advice was good.

I won the match in straight games, in 1989 Waldi had won the first two games, I had fought back to level the match but he won the fifth. In Chiba I was always in the lead. We know each other so well and I thought that I would be the more nervous player but I was very calm during the match. Waldi was the defending champion and I felt he was more nervous than me. It was the opposite of what I expected.

It’s a day I’ll never forget, Sunday 7th May 1991; the Swedish coaches did a great job. Anders Thunström was the head coach and he followed Waldi, my coach was former world champion, Stellan Bengtsson. Obviously in the final we had no coaching but much of the success at the championships can be attributed to their efforts.

I was crowned world champion and was part of a very good weekend for Sweden. Carola Haggvist won the Eurovision Song Contest, the Swedish pop group Roxette had just moved to number one on the American charts with “Joy Ride” and I had think Sweden had just won the ice hockey world championships.

World champion; that’s as good as it gets.”