In Europe, they are already untouchable. French table tennis players Alexis and Félix Lebrun continue their medal harvest. On Sunday, the elder Alexis, aged 21, won the individual gold medal by crushing the German Benedikt Duda in the singles final, four sets to zero (11-5/11-8/11-6/ 11-2). He thus becomes the third French European champion, eight years after Emmanuel Lebesson in Budapest and almost half a century after Jacques Secutin in Prague (1976). There is no doubt that they will soon give the name Lebrun to the ping-pong tables…
“The happiest day of my life? Yes. The problem is that there are a lot of them right now, from the best days of my life,” said the new European champion. A few hours earlier, with his brother Félix, bronze medalist at the Paris Olympic Games, in singles, he had won the doubles event, confirming that they indeed formed the best duo on the continent. “I can’t believe it, I had a crazy tournament, with a level that I’ve never played at, it’s like a dream for me to win on both counts, I didn’t expect at all to that,” he continued.
Triple reigning French champion (2022, 2023, 2024), he stood out on the international scene in April 2023, when he took the scalp of the N.1 at the time, the Chinese Fan Zhendong, future Olympic champion in Paris. Last June, the eldest of the Lebrun brothers even won his first singles title on the world circuit at the WTT Contender in Zagreb.
Eliminated in Paris in the eighth by the Brazilian Hugo Calderano, Alexis was the first supporter of his “little” brother Félix, before winning the team bronze medal, alongside his brother and Simon Gauzy. “We’ve been laughing about it for two years, every time there’s one who misses a competition, who plays less well, the other plays even better than usual,” says Alexis. So there is always something positive to eat. » Now all that remains is to conquer the world… or rather to beat the best Chinese players. In the world ranking of the discipline, where Félix Lebrun occupies 7th place and Alexis 19th (before his European title, Editor’s note) the first five are table tennis players from the Middle Kingdom. Impossible is not French, or rather is not Lebrun.
