It is with another status and in a favorite costume that Félix Lebrun will attack the last sweetness of the year 2024. This Tuesday, in Linz in Austria, he and the entire French delegation return to the front of the stage with the European Championship.
Archi-favorite in singles with his place as world number 7 and first European, the youngest of the Lebrun brothers only dreams of gold after bronze in Paris. He hopes to bring in his wake, first of all, his brother Alexis but also the other French people involved, Simon Gauzy, Lilian Bardet, Thibault Poret and Jules Rolland. However, they will have to be wary of the Swede Truls Moregard, double silver medalist in Paris in singles and doubles, but also of the Germans, Patrick Franziska, Dang Qiu (title holder) and Dimitrii Ovtcharov.
Among the women, five French women are in the running with Camille and Charlotte Lutz, Audrey Zarif and especially Prithika Pavade and Jia Nan Yuan. The Austrian Sofia Polcanova is aiming for a double which will certainly be challenged by the Romanian Bernadette Szocs, 13th in the world and European No. 1. Also watch out for the German Nina Mittelham.
In doubles, the Lebrun brothers are seeded number 1 and hope to do better than bronze in Munich in 2022. The other French pair Esteban Dorr and Florian Bourrassaud, 10th in the world, have legitimate hopes. Finalists in Paris this summer, the Swedes Kristian Karlsson and Anton Kallberg should also be on the podium.
In mixed doubles, the Gauzy-Pavade duo is one of the outsiders while Jules Rolland and Camille Lutz dream of exploits. Finally, Léana Hochart with Nina Guo Zheng will be the only French pair lined up in women’s doubles.
The competition will begin this Tuesday, October 15 with the preliminary rounds. Then it’s time for the final rounds on Thursday. On Sunday, October 20, the singles semi-finals and finals and the doubles finals will take place.
The competition can be followed live on the L’Équipe Channel every day between 2:10 p.m. and 4:10 p.m. from Tuesday to Friday. On Saturday, the broadcast is scheduled from 12:25 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. and on Sunday from 11:30 a.m. until 9 p.m.
