On their first appearance at the senior European Championships 18 years Alexis and 15 years old Felix LEBRUN clinched the medal in the Men’s Doubles Event at the European Championships 2022 in Munich. In the semi final they will play against two times champions Robert GARDOS and Daniel HABESOHN of Austria. In other semi final the title holders at the last World Championships and top seeds Mattias FALCK and Kristian KARLSSON will meet teammates Jon PERSSON and Anton KALLBERG of Sweden.
Mattias FALCK and Kristian KARLSSON overcame Martin ALLEGRO and Florian LAMBIET of Belgium in the quarterfinal in straight games. They were down 6:1 and 8:4 in second game but recovered to win.
“It didn’t feel like we were that far away and we thought ’OK then we can make them use their time out’ then there’s only three balls left and then you do two good things and then you’re even. It goes fast in table tennis it goes very very fast. They are a skillful doubles pair you’ve got to have respect for that. We’ve seen them play evenly against Chinese players. Especially Allegro is a very good doubles player ” said KARLSSON.
On having two silver medals and two bronze medals from European championships doubles:
“We can take two gold medals now so that we’ve got two of everything then we can quit this.”
They will meet their teammates PERSSON and KALLBERG in the semifinal:
“That would’ve been fun then we are sure to have one pair in the final so we would happily take that. We know Jon and Anton very well but they also know us very well. .”
Mattias FALCK added: “The second game was definitely important. I think we play really good doubles throughout the whole match. Perhaps we miss some return and make some easy opening mistakes in the beginning of the second set that gives them a small lead. But if you take away those balls we almost play a completely perfect doubles match. The more games you get in a European championships in the main hall the better you feel. But I think we’ve done three good doubles games. We’ve got a good feeling and look forward to tomorrow .”
In the Round of 16 Swedes beat Danish pairings Tobias RASMUSEN and Martin ANDERSEN on their way to the quarterfinal.
“It is very strong Danish duo and they created a lot of good chances for the. It was not easy match ” said KARLSSON.
LEBRUN brothers Alexis and Felix are moving forward in big steps. In the quarterfinal they overcame Milosz REDZIMSKI and Vladimir URSU the Polish-Moldavian combination to win the medal on their first European senior Championships.
“I feel amazing. It is amazing for us to get a medal. It’s unbelievable ” said Felix.” We had advantage 2-0 and play very good in the first two games then it become more difficult for us they play better and better game by game so at the end we won 11-9 in the fourth game and it was a very difficult set.”
Alexis LEBRUN added:”We expected a good result because we have played good all year but it is our first European championships so it’s always hard to get medals. We are so happy to win this match and to have this medal. We have played better and better throughout the year and we will just have to continue to improve and we hope that is good enough for getting the gold medal.”
Against REDZIMSKI and URSU they lost only third game:
“We tried to forget about the last game because it was not the same composition so we tried to think about the game before that. We played like we played in that set and it went OK.”
Asked if the age difference makes the difference in this doubles Alexis said:
“Not at all. You could see it today I took the control in opening two games but when I lost the rhythm Felix was the one who took the lead. He is mature enough to stood the pressure and it only depends on moment who will be in charge ” explained Alexis.
Alexis and Felix showed very powerful performance in the Round of 16 against Dimitrije LEVAJAC and Andrei PUTUNTICA.
“We were down two times 5:7 but with little adaptation of the tactics and better spin on first ball we managed to recover and to win the match ” said Felix.
To win the medal Jon PERSSON and Anton KALLBERG overcame Polish pairings Maciej KUBIK and Samuel KULCZYTCKI. Once again they needed full five games for that.
“This time it was a little bit the opposite; we were ahead and they caught up. But we managed to close it in the end which was nice. We are insanely happy to be in the semifinal we weren’t ranked to be there and we’ve almost been knocked out two matches in a row. But we are there and it’s amazing. We’ve fought us through three doubles matches and won all three of them in a deciding game. But it’s an insanely nice feeling when you walk away with that kind of victory even though it’s been a battle. We’ve really got to fight for it but it’s incredibly nice ” said PERSSON.
PERSSON has one bronze medal from 2008: “Then I have been in some quarterfinals so it is nice to take it (the medal) again. It’s not been that many years .”
On playing teammates Mattias Falck and Kristian Karlsson in the semifinal:
“It will be a lot of fun an all-Swedish game. We will tease them a little bit tonight. It is a very good doubles pair – they won the world championships recently. It’ll be nice to go in to play them in the semifinal. It’ll just be a nice game and we will focus everything we can to win the game but it will be tough.”
KALLBERG added on winning at least a bronze medal at his first at a major international competition:
“It feels pretty big obviously but we are obviously hungry for more. We are not happy with a bronze medal here. Kristian and Mattias they’re favourites and World champions but they’ve got the pressure on them to win so we could just go out there and try to play as well as we have done before and even better to give them a good fight. Jon and I We know each other well we’ve played a little bit with each other earlier. We know each other and know how we want to play and what kind of balls we’d want we can follow each other well. We play aggressively and make it hard for the opponents trying to decide the balls early. It’s worked quite well so far.”
Previously they beat Emmanuel LEBESSON and Simon GAZY in five games they were stretched to full distance once again today. They overcame Cedric NUYTNICK of Belgium and Jakub DYJAS of Poland in another long distance thriller.
“It is nice to win 3-0 but 3-2 is also something to be very happy about. The matches haven’t been easy and I feel that we get to fight a little to get into it and we get a little wrong but we fight really hard and in the end we just play better and better. At the end of the game we were better than they. It is an incredible relief and I think that was possible to see on our reactions afterwards too. Now we’ve got a good chance for a medal so we’ll just keep going ” said KALLBERG.
In the quarters Robert GARDOS and Daniel HABESOHN overcame Benedict DUDA and QIU Dang of Germany. In the semis they will meet LEBRUN brothers.
“They play very good. Alexis I don’t know if he is top-20 or something in the world ranking and the young one has always played very good I think. They’ve already played some good doubles matches in the world tour so I think they’re very good and they’ve got no scares. They will play they will shout they will cry they will do everything. I know them and I don’t know how they play but I know they will give everything and it will be a very hard match ” said GARDOS.
On their chances:
“It’s 50/50. I don’t think we are favourites because they are brothers. I played with my brother and from zero we became top-10 in the world ranking because we knew each other we played together for a long time. And I think it’s the same for them. They’re young but they played together for a very long time. They play in the same team in France. So it will be a very hard match.”
Benedict DUDA and QIU Dang no. two seeds forced Aleksandar KARAKASEVIC to say good-buy to the European championships earlier than he wanted. KARAKASEVIC played last match in his career at the European Individual Championships in Round of 16 Doubles with Lubomir PISTEJ. After German dup lost the opening game the match went to opposite direction.
“We needed some time to adopt to their game and to warm up. From the second game we changed the momentum ” said DUDA.
The very last pairings to leave the arena after the Round of 16 were Austria’s and Czech Republic’s doubles. Robert GARDOS and Daniel HABESOHN the two times winners of the title beat Pavel SIRUCEK and Jiri MARTINKO 3:2.
“It was a very hard game. They played the first two-three balls with quite high quality quite good quite fast on the table. We had 1-0 in games we made our job a bit more difficult and after that it is a best of five everything is possible in the last game ” said GARDOS.
In the decisive game that they won 16-14 they overcome two match points:
“We had some good balls but we lost the points – maybe some concentration mistakes I don’t know. I also think that they were getting a little bit nervous and made some easy mistakes in the beginning when they were leading 6-2 but after that I think we were playing very good in the last 10 points. They had match ball we had match ball I think the both pairs were playing quite good so it was very hard we had to play very exactly and finally I think mentally we were five per cent stronger than they are. When they had match points I think that Daniel and I played quite strong balls. This was the difference that we could stay quite strong mentally in the critical moments. That’s why I think we could survive and win.”
Daniel HABESOHN: “The good is we improved our level from the first to the second match. We played much stronger and hopefully in the next match we can even improve more because Dang Qiu and Benedikt Duda are a very strong double. We beat them in the last tournament so they are for sure afraid of us. We will do our best for the next match.”
On his thoughts as he and partner Robert GARDOS overcame two match points in the last game:
“You think ’OK they have match point now’. But on the opposite way we were in this position many times before we played many big matches on big stages and they didn’t.
“For them they play against the two-time European champions in doubles and they know they have to do something special or better. This is the small thing that makes us stronger and more safe in the rallies. They hit some good balls and then they got match balls and missed easy ones but we played our level until the end quite strong.We played the same level or even improved our level the longer the match lasted. This is our strength.”
