Félix Lebrun becomes European table tennis champion for the first time and succeeds his brother Alexis

He is the new king of Europe. Félix Lebrun won the continental singles title on Sunday October 18, after a long battle in the final with the Swede Anton Källberg, in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The 20-year-old Frenchman, who had never yet won an individual medal in Europe, had to go through seven rounds (7-11, 11-9, 13-11, 8-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-1) to win gold and succeed his older brother Alexis, who won the title two years ago in Austria.

Twenty-four hours after depriving Anton Källberg of doubles gold, Félix Lebrun did not let the Swede take his revenge. Immediately penalized for a certain delay in lighting, the Frenchman quickly got back on track in the second round, not without a scare when finishing. After four wasted set points, he had to resort to a timeout to resume his march forward.

A final quick round

While his cry of relief which vibrated the walls of the Stožice Arena gave the impression that the match had swung to his side, the tension only increased, with an extremely competitive third set won 13-11 after being behind. Still not knocked out, Källberg did not let himself be overwhelmed in the next round and even continued in the fifth; the one where Félix Lebrun existed the least.

It was with his back to the wall, and leading three sets to two, that the Frenchman found his best level. After coming back up, he delivered the decisive round in less than four minutes with a bitter score of 11-1. Mercilessly, he now leads 7-1 in his singles confrontations against the 29th player in the world.

Eyes now fixed on the world No. 1 position

Félix Lebrun reaches his second big milestone of the year 2026, after winning his first Grand Smash title in Malmö two months ago. The Montpellier native is also in ambush for the world No. 1 spot, behind Sora Matsushima. If he is currently 1,900 points behind the Japanese, the latter will have more points to defend by the end of the season. And three major tournaments remain to be played: the WTT Champions in Montpellier (1,000 points for the winner), the WTT Champions in Frankfurt (also 1,000 points) and the WTT Finals in Hong Kong (up to 1,500 points).

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