The draw for the WTT circuit finals, which brings together the 16 best players in the world this week in Fukuoka, was not kind to Alexis and Félix Lebrun.
This is the last big meeting of the season. From Wednesday, the finals of the WTT circuit will take place in Fukuoka with the 16 best players of the season. Among them, the Lebrun brothers. If Félix had long been assured of his presence in Japan, his brother Alexis had to wait until the last tournament in Frankfurt to get his ticket in singles.
But the bronze medalists at the Paris Games were not spoiled by the draw held this Monday. Now 14e world player, Alexis Lebrun has in fact inherited the Chinese Lin Shidong, second in the world rankings and the player in the best shape at the end of the season as evidenced by his victories in Frankfurt, Macau, Muscat and Almaty.
A bad memory for Félix Lebrun
Only one player has managed to beat him since the Games: Félix Lebrun, who crushed him in the semi-final in Montpellier. The youngest of the Lebrun brothers, now fourth player in the world, can also curse the draw. He must indeed face Benedikt Duda, his tormentor in the quarter-finals of the Euro in Austria and a player against whom he has always had difficulty. The German is also one of the men in form at the end of the season, with a finalist place at the Euro and another in the semi-final in Montpelier.
If he manages to beat the German vice-European champion, Félix Lebrun could find the Chinese Lin Gaoyuan (n°9) in the quarter-finals and Wang Chuqin (n°1) in the semi-final, unless the Swede Truls Moregard, who recently dominated in Frankfurt, created the feat against the world number one.
Note that in the doubles table, the Lebrun brothers, second in the world rankings, will face the Japanese Sora Matsushima and Tomokazu Harimoto in the quarter-finals, the Esteban Dorr-Florian Bourrassaud pair having to play against the Hong Kongers Ho Kwan Kit and Lam Siu Hang .
