After initially surprising victories, the German Benedikt Duda lost the final of the European Table Tennis Championships. The 30-year-old Bundesliga professional from TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt lost to Frenchman Alexis Lebrun in 0:4 sets. “I’m very proud of myself. I would have liked to go one step further. But Alexis was too strong for that,” said Duda.
In the previous rounds, Duda caused one of the biggest surprises of recent years: in Linz, Austria, he first beat the tournament favorite and younger Lebrun brother Felix (4:3), then he surprisingly won against the former world number one Dimitrij Ovtcharov (4:2 ). “Benne played phenomenal,” said Ovtcharov.
For Duda, the 2021 European team champion, the silver medal is the greatest individual success of his career. He was already one of the German teams that surprisingly won World Cup silver in China in 2022 and European Championship gold in Romania in 2021. It is only the third time in the last 13 European Championship tournaments that the individual European champion does not come from Germany.
At the Table tennis Nina Mittelham continued to win the bronze medal at the European Championships in her first tournament after a serious Olympic injury. The 18-year-old Annett Kaufmann won bronze in the mixed doubles.
After initially surprising victories, the German Benedikt Duda lost the final of the European Table Tennis Championships. The 30-year-old Bundesliga professional from TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt lost to Frenchman Alexis Lebrun in 0:4 sets. “I’m very proud of myself. I would have liked to go one step further. But Alexis was too strong for that,” said Duda.
In the previous rounds, Duda caused one of the biggest surprises of recent years: in Linz, Austria, he first beat the tournament favorite and younger Lebrun brother Felix (4:3), then he surprisingly won against the former world number one Dimitrij Ovtcharov (4:2 ). “Benne played phenomenal,” said Ovtcharov.
