Brothers Félix Lebrun and Alexis Lebrun were crowned European doubles table tennis champions on Sunday in Linz, where the eldest Alexis still has to play the singles final at the end of the afternoon.
The Montpellier residents, two months after their two Olympic medals, in singles for Félix and in teams with Simon Gauzy, left no chance to the Swedes Anton Kallberg-Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-2, 11-6, 11-8 ).
“I said at the start of these championships that I wanted to come back with a title”, recalls Félix Lebrun, “it’s successful, it’s magnificent and I hope that Alex will go for the double, I will experience it as what to bear.”
To do this, Alexis will have to beat the German Benedikt Duda (5:40 p.m.), his brother’s slayer on Saturday in the quarter-finals.
“You have to write the most beautiful pages. They are already beautiful, but they can be very, very beautiful,” declared coach Nathanaël Molin after Alexis qualified for the singles final.
As Félix holds his racket, in a “penholder” grip, the two brothers have once again grabbed the pen to continue writing the history of the tricolor ping, two months after a dream summer in Paris.
In Linz, Austria, they won the first European title in men’s doubles for France since 2004 and the victory of Patrick Chila and Jean-Philippe Gatien in Bremen.
And the day is far from over. After his resounding victory in front of the Swedish Olympic vice-champion Truls Moregard (4-0) – whom he beat again in doubles – Alexis Lebrun can thus become the third French player to become European champion in singles, eight years after Emmanuel Lebesson at Budapest, and almost 50 years after Jacques Secutin in Prague (1976).
“I feel good, I’m relaxed, it’s going to be another great moment, I hope it continues this way,” he declared before heading off to prepare again for his final challenge.
In addition, Benedikt Duda, 28th in the world, is none other than the one who overthrew Félix Lebrun in the quarter-finals the day before, a grueling match lost 4-3 by the youngest of the family, 18 years old, who in anger then had threw his racket to the ground.
