By Krystal Hu
PARIS (Reuters) - Germany's men's table tennis team, led by Timo Boll, have won a medal at every Olympics since the event was introduced at the 2008 Beijing Games but will not extend that record in Paris.
After losing one doubles and two singles to Sweden on Tuesday, Germany missed out on a spot in the semi-finals in a 3-2 defeat, marking the end of their greatest player's career.
In the semi-finals the Swedes will play Japan, who earlier faced a tough fight against Taiwan before winning 3-1.
Led by singles silver medallist Truls Moregard, the Sweden team first clinched the doubles and then Moregard narrowly defeated Germany's Dimitrij Ovtcharov in a 3-2 thriller.
When 43-year-old Boll returned to the court for his singles match, his much younger rival and friend, Sweden's Anton Kallberg, won the first two games.
But the storied Boll, who had announced he would retire from international competition after the Paris Olympics, was not ready to bid farewell without a fight.
In the fourth game, he capitalised on Kallberg's errors and won 11-7, with the crowd cheering his name. Boll continued to battle and got to 8-8 in the fifth game before losing 11-8.
"We were hoping to have a better ending than a loss to Sweden in the quarter-final, but we have to admit that they were really strong today. They deservedly won and we have to show respect for that," said an emotional Boll.
Japan started strongly with Shunsuke Togami and Hiroto Shinozuka quickly winning the doubles, but Taiwan's Lin Yun-Ju proved a harder opponent against Tomokazu Harimoto.
In a thrilling five-setter, the two players -- rivals since their teenage years -- were level at 2-2 after taking it in turns to win but in the decider, Lin adopted more aggressive tactics, gaining five points in a row to defeat Harimoto 3-2.
Harimoto rebounded against experienced 43-year-old Taiwanese Chuang Chih-Yuan in the fourth match, winning three straight games and sending the Taiwan team home.
GERMANY PROGRESS
In another close fight, Germany's women's team battled past the United States to secure a quarter-final spot with a 3-2 win in a clash lasting more than two hours and 30 minutes.
After claiming the first two matches, the higher-seeded Germans lost two singles as the Americans levelled the contest.
However in the decider, Germany's 18-year-old Annett Kaufmann won the last two games 11-9 11-8 to beat U.S. first-time Olympian Rachel Sung 3-1 and take her team through.
China's Ma Long made his Paris debut in the doubles with Wang Chuqin as they beat India duo Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar 3-0.
At 35, Ma has won team golds at his three previous Games and back-to-back men's singles titles in Rio and Tokyo, becoming the most successful Olympic table tennis player of all time.
Wang, who returned to the South Paris Arena to face his first opponent since his shock elimination by Sweden's Moregard in the singles, brushed off questions about the paddle incident that went viral on social media.
The main paddle he has been using at the Olympics was broken by excited photographers who rushed to the court to capture the moment of his win in the mixed doubles gold-medal match.
Wang thanked Ma, who he called "Brother Long," for helping secure the doubles win and said he was gradually regaining his footing after beating India's Thakkar 3-0 in the team singles.
South Korea enjoyed two 3-0 victories. The men's team advanced to the last eight by beating Croatia, while the women overcame Sweden to reach the semi-finals. Taiwan's women's team easily eliminated Australia and will face China on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Krystal Hu in Paris; Editing by Ken Ferris and Clare Fallon)
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