Sweden’s Felix Burestedt has provided one of the shocks of the tournament so far after knocking out the current holder of the European Games, Pablo Abian.
The 24-year old went into the multi-sport event in Minsk shortly after attaining the biggest achievement of his career, reaching the final of an International Challenge tournament.
Now, the Swede will be setting his aims higher after reaching the last eight of the European Games at the first attempt.
A tail of three games
Burestedt, who trains at Badminton Europe’s Centre of Excellence needed three games to beat world number 76 in the world.
The youngster got the better of Abian in the first game by beating the Spaniard in comfortable style, 14-21.
Back came Abian in the second to show Burestedt that he was not rolling over, and took it to a third game, after winning 16-21.
The third game was always going to be tight after two completely different score lines in the first two, but it was the underdog who prevailed as he beat Abian in a close contest, 21-23.
A new experience for the Swede
Burestedt who spoke to Badminton Europe after the match expressed his enjoyment to be through to the quarterfinals of the European Games.
- This is a new experience for me, standing here, and I am very happy that I managed to take the win, Felix Burestedt said.
- It is very high in my achievements; I need time to melt things down, but I am so happy to be in the quarterfinals here, he added.
The COE player went into this match as the underdog and spoke about the experience of Abian after the match.
- I knew that he had a lot of experience with these big matches and has been on the tour for a long time, the Swede commented.
Burestedt will now play Raul Must from Estonia in the quarterfinals of the European Games.
Watch the full interview with Felix Burestedt here