ATHENS, Aug. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Swedish veteran Jan-Ove Waldner was stopped from creating more miracles as he lost to young South Korean Ryu Seung Min 4-1 here Sunday and failed to reach the men'ssingles final in the table tennis tournament of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

    In the previous rounds Waldner, already 39, had outclassed China's world singles No.2 Ma Lin and European champion Timo Boll of Germany. He now must be contented with a bronze medal, if he could beat the top-ranked Chinese Wang Liqin in the bronze medal match scheduled for Monday.

    Ryu, 22 and ranked third in the world, will meet in the Monday final China's world No.4 Wang Hao, who ousted his teammate Wang Liqin 4-1 in the first semi-final match played in the Galatsi Olympic Hall in northwest Athens Sunday morning.

    "The opening game was very important," both Waldner and his coach Peter said after the match. Waldner had a 7-7 draw with the South Korean but finally lost the game 9-11.

    "Waldner had won the first game in all the previous (singles) matches. So after winning the first game today, Ryu played quite relaxed and took an early lead of 3 or 4 points in most of the following games," said Peter.

    "We know the South Korean is really good at long rallies and isvery fast, this is his strong point," he added.

    Waldner, who looked a bit disappointed after the defeat, said that he had lost mainly because "the South Korean played very well".

    "He is a very good player and every time he can play at very very high level," he said. "He also had very good service, a lot of downspins, very tough to receive."

    "Normally I prefer to play Koreans than Chinese, but today, he (Ryu) was just too strong,"conceded the Swede.

    Ryu said after the match that he had attacked the Swede aggressively from the very beginning, forcing him to "shrink".

    "I prepared not to lose the temper during the game, and initially controlled myself," he added.

    Asked about his Chinese opponent in the final, Ryu said that henever beat Wang before as the latter "has the unique technique to hit the ball".

    However, he continued, "I have practiced plenty of time on thisbefore I came here. This is the Olympics! So I will try my best."

    Asked how much chance Ryu has to win, his coach Kim Taek Soo replied, "Who knows? This is the final." But he added that Ryu is now "in good conditions".

    Earlier, the 20-year-old Wang Hao also said that he felt he was"already very close" to his best form. "But the past results mean nothing as this is the Olympic Games. We will see it tomorrow," hesaid.

    Does the fact that two players of the younger generation meet in the Olympic singles final mean that the age of veterans is already over? Waldner answered, "I don't know, we will see. The only thing I can say is that we have two very good players in the final."

    "So I think it will be a good tournament with a good final," headded.

    But the Swede refused to say whom he favored to win. "Both (Wang and Ryu) are in perfect shape, so I don't know. I think it's going to be an open match, a 50-50 match," he said.

    The fifth-time Olympian, who was singles champion in Barcelona 1992 and silver winner in Sydney 2000, vowed to fight on for a bronze medal. Asked whether he could beat the powerful Wang Monday,he said, "Yeah I hope so. If I can beat Ma Lin, then I think I canbeat Wang Liqin also." Enditem