Table tennis: Félix Lebrun wins the European Games, his brother Alexis bronze medalist

2023-06-27 22:41:54

The young French table tennis player Félix Lebrun, 16 years old and 31st in the world, won the gold medal by dominating the Portuguese Marcos Freitas (59th in the world) four sets to three (9-11, 11-5, 11-5, 4-11 , 6-11, 11-2 13-11) in the final of the European Games table tennis tournament on Tuesday in Krakow.

At the end of a fiercely contested match, the youngest of the Lebrun brothers won after a decisive set of rare intensity during which the two players went blow for blow. He won the bet on his third match point.

While the 35-year-old Portuguese, former world No. 8, had made a successful start (11-9 in the first set), Félix Lebrun, encouraged by his brother Alexis, beaten by the same opponent in the semi-finals, rebelled to equalize and even take the lead to lead two sets to one. But no doubt paying for this excess of energy, he then experienced a slump which his opponent was able to take advantage of.

Bronze without playing for Alexis Lebrun

Returning to two sets everywhere, the latter widened the gap by removing the fifth set (11-6) to lead 3 to 2. Lebrun then raised his level of play leaving only crumbs to Freitas in the following set (11 -2). The two players then had to decide between themselves during a very disputed decisive round, which finally went to the young Habs (13-11). He won his first major title.

At the start of the afternoon, Félix Lebrun had qualified for the final by defeating Croatian Andrej Gacina in 4 rounds. The tricolor ping had also come within a whisker of an unprecedented European final between two players from the same siblings. But the eldest Alexis (19) fell against Freitas (4 sets to 2 after leading 2 sets to 1). A few tens of minutes later, the Montpellier, 18th in the world, won the bronze, without playing, Andrej Gacina having announced his package to the organizers for an adductor injury.