Table tennis: Lebrun brothers beaten in doubles final in Las Vegas

Brothers Félix (18) and Alexis Lebrun (21) were defeated in the doubles final of the Grand Smash Table Tennis Championships in Las Vegas (USA) on Saturday by South Koreans An Jae-hyun and Lim Jong-hoon. After a superb start to the match, the two Frenchmen, world number ones in the sport, ended up losing 3 sets to 1 (4-11, 13-11, 11-5, 11-6) to the world number four pair.

The Lebruns easily dominated the first set and found themselves at 10-6 in the second set, when the match turned. The Tricolores missed five second-set points before conceding on the first to the South Koreans, who then rolled through the third and fourth sets.

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This is the first time a non-Chinese pair has won a Grand Smash doubles event, the highest-level WTT tournament category created in 2022 and which has been held four times a year since last season. The Lebrun brothers, European champions and World Championship bronze medalists in doubles in May, dominated An Jae-hyun and Lim Jong-hoon in the second round of the first Grand Smash of the season in Singapore in February, before losing to the same pair in the WTT Star Contender final in Ljubljana at the end of June.

Félix Lebrun is still due to play the semi-final of the singles tournament against Chinese Wang Chuqin (world number 2) on Saturday evening (during the night from Saturday to Sunday in France).