Truls Moregard Equipment and Profile

Last Updated on April 24, 2024 by Alex Horscroft

Truls Moregard is a young Swedish player that has quickly risen through the ranks to place himself 4th in the world. While much of this is due to the current ranking system which places more emphasis on activity rather than the quality of wins, it is nonetheless very impressive.

At face value, Moregard seems like your typical attacker, but this is not the case. He uses a range of unorthodox shots which makes him very exciting to watch.

Truls Moregard Key Info

Name: Truls Moregard
Nationality: Sweden
Date of birth: 16th February 2002
Grip: Shakehand
Style: Forehand loop, varied backhand
Highest ranking: 4
Height: 5ft 10in
Weight: 72kg (159lb)

Truls Moregard Equipment

Truls Moregard Blade

If you’re familiar with table tennis equipment it should come as no surprise as to what blade Moregard uses. This is because his blade has a hexagonal shape and it is the first of its kind.

I am of course talking about the Stiga Cybershape. Being a revolutionary new blade, it is pretty damn expensive. However, it has proven very popular thus far making it worth the cost to many players.

The Cybershape’s primary allure is its increased hitting area and sweet spot. While these areas are not massively larger than a conventional blade, the change is noticeable — especially at the top level. Moregard picked up the blade as soon as it was released and he has been using it ever since.

Truls Moregard Rubbers

According to Stiga, Truls Moregard’s bat consists of 2x DNA Platinum XH rubbers with a 2.3mm sponge. The DNA series of rubbers are Stiga’s most advanced thus far, so it is unsurprising to see Truls use one of these rubbers considering he is sponsored by Stiga.

Of the DNA line of rubbers, Stiga rates Platinum XH the most offensive giving it a 168 speed rating and a 140 spin rating. The closest, by comparison, is DNA pro with a 160 speed rating, and a 134 spin rating.

Truls Moregard Playstyle

Truls Moregard’s grip is shakehand and he is predominately an offensive forehand looper. His primary game plan is to hit forehand loop kills whenever possible. However, unlike most modern-day offensive players, Moregard does not loop consistently on his backhand. So let’s talk a little about that.

Backhand Attack

Moregard is far more unorthodox on his backhand side compared to his forehand. I should preface this by saying he has an excellent backhand loop, and he could use it consistently to great effect, but he prefers to play a different way.

Truls usually only executes strong backhand loop openers on his backhand — he doesn’t get sucked into loop-on-loop rallies on this side. Instead, he is happy to block and punch the ball. For this reason, (and his Swedish nationality), some people are making comparisons between him and Waldner. Waldner too loved to block and counter on his backhand despite having a great backhand loop.

Tricky Style

To me, the most interesting aspect of Moregard’s game is his diverse arsenal of unorthodox shots. He uses virtually every push and flick variation that exists in the game. It is clear that his goal is to disrupt the rhythm of his opponents using shots you don’t see too often.

I’m talking sidespin pushes, chop blocks, strawberries, even topspin drop shots, Truls has it all. He uses these shots a surprising amount, and more often than not they seem to work. I do, however, think sometimes he gets a little too confident with these strokes. They are rare for a reason; they work best on an unsuspecting opponent. So when he uses them too much he often gets punished.

To see what I mean I recommend you watch this match of him taking on current world number 3 Liang Jingkun. You’ll see all sorts of strange shots in this game.

Backspin Punch

You’re probably reading this and thinking what?! A backspin punch?! I’ve never heard of that. Well I have to say even I was a little skeptical. But I can confirm in fact confirm that Moregard does use a backhand punch shot with backspin.

This shot is highly effective if used properly. When fast balls with moderate topspin come our way our natural reaction is to simply get our bat behind the ball. You generally don’t have to think much about your bat angle because the ball’s pace does the work for you. This shot exploits that habit!

The only way to return a quality backspin punch is to open your racket angle wider than you ever would against an offensive shot. This completely goes against your muscle memory, so if it’s your first few times returning it, chances are you are hitting the ball into the net.

The thing is, this shot only works when the ball bounces a little high. As Moregard takes away the topspin on the ball it loses its downward drive. Therefore, he needs the ball to bounce high enough to give him the angle. He also can’t perform it against balls with heavy topspin as there is too much spin to counteract — the backspin punch works best when opponents are blocking.

If you fast forward to 4:30 in the video, you’ll see a brief explanation of how Moregard pulls off this crazy shot!

Serving

Truls has a somewhat standard serving game so we’ll just cover it briefly. His main serve of choice is the pendulum. However, he also uses the chop and shovel serve.

In my opinion, his serves are a little behind his quality in open play.

Truls Moregard Record

As Moregard is just 20 years old he is pretty new to the big stage. He hasn’t played the top players in the world all that much, having played some on a few occasions, and others not at all.

Yet one thing is sure, he is performing incredibly for his age, and he has picked up some very good victories including his two wins over German star Timo Boll. Truls Moregard’s 2022 wins consist of other top players such as Mattias Falck, Darko Jorgic, and Jingkun Liang.

Opponents	Wins	Losses	Win Rate
Truls Moregard vs Timo Boll	2	0	100%
Truls Moregard vs Fan Zhendong	0	1	0%
Truls Moregard vs Tomokazu Harimoto	1	0	100%
Truls Moregard vs Liang Jingkun	1	1	50%
Truls Moregard vs Lin Yun-Ju	0	3	0%
Truls Moregard vs Wang Chuqin	0	3	0%
Truls Moregard vs Patrick Franziska	1	1	50%
Truls Moregard vs Quadri Aruna	2	0	100%

Truls Moregard Medals

World Championships — 1x silver, 1x bronze (Silver, Bronze)
European Championships — 2x bronze (Team)
World Junior Championship — 2x silver (Singles)
Swedish Championships — 2x gold, 1x bronze (Singles)

Source: Wikipedia

A Future Great?

While it could be argued that Truls Moregard’s ranking of world number 4 already makes him a great I’d still argue that he is still a long way away. The fact that Xu Xin is ranked down in 90th tells you everything you need to know about the current ranking system…

However, I see a bright future ahead for this young man. And who knows, in time he could join his fellow countryman Jan-Ove Waldner and Jorgen Persson as an icon.