Since entering 2024, many new currents in the world table tennis have emerged collectively, among which in the men's table tennis order, France's F. Lebrun and Japan's Matsushima Teruku are undoubtedly the youngest and most eye-catching supernovas.
A pair of teenage geniuses embark on the road of fast men together
F. Lebrun was born in a French table tennis family, he is 17 years old this year, and he and his brother A. Lebrun were born together in 2023, and in the first quarter of 2024, a strong whirlwind of glasses bros will blow.
At the World Table Tennis Championships in Busan in February, the Lebrun brothers led the French men's table tennis team to the runner-up, creating a new glorious chapter in French table tennis. At the Singapore Grand Slam in March, F. Lebrun became the only non-Chinese player to reach the semi-finals, and the world ranking rose to fifth, becoming the highest world ranking of a French male table tennis player in nearly 29 years since the legendary star Geiting.
Lebrun Jr. has a number of impressive records
F. Lebrun has pioneered the traditional straight board play style of Chinese table tennis, and his right-handed straight board near the table fast attack combined with the backhand horizontal play has been perfected. In particular, his straight-and-horizontal fighting strength has been praised for surpassing the two Olympic champions of the same type in China, Wang Hao and Xu Xin.
It is with his first-class speed and skill that F. Lebrun has been recognized as one of the outstanding representatives of the most advanced backhand system in the world table tennis today.
Teruku Matsushima is already the No. 4 main player of the Japanese table tennis national team
The young men's player who is competing with F. Lebrun is Teruma Matsushima of Japan. Matsushima Teruku is 16 years old, one year younger than F. Lebrun, but he debuted at least four years earlier than F. Lebrun. Matsushima began competing on the ITTF Senior Professional Tour at the age of 11, and his first world match was against Hong Kong team's main man Ho Kwan Kit in Hong Kong in 2018. At that time, Matsushima Teruku was too young, and his head had just come out of the table, and some of the short balls in the table were out of reach. In that game, He Junjie couldn't cry or laugh, he really couldn't bear to slap Matsushima Teruku with a heavy hand, but every time he scattered a little bit in his hand, Matsushima Teruku could hit a killing board and take away a few points. In the end, He Junjie won a small victory with seventy percent of his earnestness.
Teruku Matsushima competed in the World Senior Championship at the age of 11
Matsushima Teruku's left-handed horizontal board two-sided arc mainstream play is currently infinitely close to the backhand system speed flow camp.
At the Singapore Grand Slam in early March, F. Lebrun and Teruku Matsushima met in the first round of the Men's Singles main draw, and the two joined forces to set a record for the fastest finish. In that game, the two sides played 5 rounds, each game scored above the passing line, every point was more than 4 rounds, including two timeouts and 4 breaks, the two brothers completed the whole game in 27 minutes, which is simply incredible.
In that match, F. Lebrun and Matsushima Teruma discussed the whole process, and the two seemed to be competing with "who is slower and who is the grandson", and the whole process was silent with black faces, and they raced each other in the live-action version of Whirlwind Kombat. In the end, F. Lebrun only won by a narrow margin of 2 points in the deciding game, and the strength of the two showed almost the same, and the difference between winning and losing was really only a millimeter.
The battle of lightning and stone fire at the Singapore Grand Slam stunned the world
17 years old VS 16 years old, the combined age of the two is less than 34 years old, setting a record for the youngest age to play in the main event in WTT series history. And F. Lebrun and Teruma Matsushima are also the two youngest male players to occupy a place in the top order of the world table tennis at the moment.
The Bukong duo had already teamed up to win the World Junior Championship when they were cubs
However, this pair of cubs who seem to be mortal enemies for a long time in the future are actually a pair of green plums with a "small" friendship. After hitting a wall in the adult competition in his first debut, Matsushima returned to the junior competition to continue his training, and then became acquainted with F. Lebrun and established a cross-border friendship. At the 2021 World Junior Championships, F. Lebrun and Teruku Matsushima teamed up to win the Men's Doubles title in the U15 category, the first ITTF World Series title they both won at the same time.
Teruku Matsushima has just won the T-League championship
At the moment, Teruku Matsushima has just won the annual championship as the main player of Kinoshita Tokyo FC in the T-League, and F. Lebrun's partner brother A. Lebrun, who is competing in the French Championships, has just won the first men's doubles championship in his career. This pair of young genius fast knife hands are still far away across the ocean.
The first brother pair in the history of the French Championships to win the men's doubles title
The Lebrun brothers won the men's doubles title at the French Championships for the first time
According to the generation, Lin Shidong of our national table tennis is the only representative who will repeatedly face the impact of F. Lebrun and Matsushima Terukong in the next two cycles. Lin Shidong is 19 years old, 2 or 3 years older than them, but his current performance and status are already behind Bukong. Can a small stone withstand it?