French table tennis player Felix Lebrun has been discussed by fans because of his special grip, but if it comes to the results, his brother Alexis is actually more eye-catching, not only rising more than 1,000 places in the world ranking in a year, but also recently defeating the world's No. 3 Chinese player Liang Jingkun in the round of 16 event hosted by the World Table Tennis Professional League (WTT).
Alex, born in 2003, because he was born in a table tennis family, began to practice table tennis with his brother since he was a child, when he was a child, the two brothers most often played table tennis and rackets instead of cars, but unlike his brother Felix, who switched to direct shooting, he is a sideways shooter, so compared with his brother's light and smooth ball style, his brother Alex's style is more powerful.
In 2015, 12-year-old Alex won his first medal in the international arena by winning the men's doubles silver medal at the Portuguese Junior Table Tennis Open, but just as he was about to start actively participating in international events, he was injured after participating in an event in 2016, so it took him almost two years to return to the competition, and in 2019 he represented France at the World Junior Table Tennis Championships and won the team bronze medal with his teammates.
At the age of 18, Alex won the mixed doubles championship, team runner-up and singles bronze medal at the European Junior Table Tennis Championships, and reached the quarterfinals of the doubles event in his first WTT adult event in the same year.
This year he won the WTT Dusseldorf doubles title, his first senior title, and beat world No. 10 Ochalov in the first round of the Budapest Championship in mid-year, Alex happily ran around the court and dropped his racket to the ground.
In the recent WTT Macau Championship, Alex first defeated South Korea's Jang Yujin, ranked 17th, in the first round, and faced world No. 3 Liang Jingkun in the next round of 16.
Just when everyone thought that Liang Jingkun would definitely win easily, Alex showed his excellent resilience, rushed to chase the game into the tiebreaker when Liang Jingkun gained the advantage, and after five rounds of the battle, he successfully obtained a ticket to the top 8, setting the biggest upset of this tournament and playing another masterpiece of his table tennis career, and he also said after the game that it was incredible for him to win this game.
Although Alex's amazing journey ended in the round of 8, it also fully demonstrated his strength and potential. In just one year, he has jumped to 30 in the world rankings, and what many fans love is his spirit of daring to fight.
No matter how top the player he encounters or when the score is behind, Alex will not be stage frightened or become conservative, with the spirit of not being afraid to make mistakes and bravely trying, I believe that he can continue to push forward the ranking after more major competitions, and look forward to seeing him on more podiums in the future!