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

After a superb start to the game, the two French players, world number one in this field, ended up losing 3 sets to 1 to the South Koreans An Jae-hyun and Lim Jong-hoone.

Brothers Félix and Alexis Lebrun were defeated in the doubles final of the Grand Smash Table Tennis Championships in Las Vegas (USA) on Saturday, July 12, 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, when the match turned. The Tricolores missed five second-set points before yielding on the first to the South Koreans, who then rolled through the third and fourth sets. This is the first time that a non-Chinese pair has won doubles at a Grand Smash, 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 bronze medalists at the World Championships 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 final of the WTT Star Contender in Ljubljana at the end of June.

Four hours later in the singles semifinals, Félix Lebrun finally lost in the deciding set to Chinese world champion Wang Chuqin. The two players played a furious, high-level match lasting nearly an hour, won by the world No. 2 (11-9, 5-11, 11-6, 7-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-9) on his fourth match point. The Frenchman thus suffered his fourth defeat in as many encounters against Wang Chuqin, but pushed the recent Doha world champion to his limits.