Brothers Alexis and Felix LEBRUN of France were crowned champions of the Men’s Doubles Event at the LIEBHERR European Championships in Linz. In the final they overcame Sweden’s Anton KALLBERG and Truls MOREGARD in straight games. Maciej KOLODZIEJCZYK of Austria and Vladislav URSU of Moldova along with Mattias FALCK and Kristian KARLSSON of Sweden took the bronze medals.
Felix and Alexis are the first brothers to win a European doubles title. The only other family duo to win a doubles title were the twin sisters Diane and Rosalind ROWE who became world champions in 1951 and 1954.
In the final the French duo dominated.
“KALLBERG and MOREGARD are amazing players but we played our top game today. Especially Felix who performed superbly. It’s such a great day for me. The first thing this morning was my win against MOREGARD in singles and now our first gold in doubles… I don’t have words to describe it ” said Alexis.
Coach Nathanaël MOLIN was also pleased: “Their performance in this doubles tournament is close to perfect. They faced very few difficulties in any match because they have a fantastic game together. Their connection is very strong. Tactically they played perfectly. In this game so much depends on your feeling and sense of what to do at the right moment and today everything clicked.”
Speaking about the final against the Swedes MOLIN added: “We knew they have very strong forehands and are good in the short game. They put a lot of pressure on the first ball. The toughest task was finding a way to handle that and we managed it with strong service receive game especially through our own serves.”
After the emotional end of his singles tournament where he was disqualified for a reckless reaction Felix bounced back in fantastic style.
“I accepted what happened; it was my fault and I moved forward. I spent some time with myself then shifted my mindset and got prepared for the final. This was very important for both of us. Now it’s easier to accept the defeat because this gold heals. We played tactically and technically a perfect match. This morning Alexis played perfectly against Truls in singles which gave us an advantage. We played our best table tennis.”
Felix also shared a humorous moment about the end of the match: “We had prepared a special new celebration for this occasion but we were so happy that we forgot to do it. We’re always striving to do new things to change and move forward and that’s why we even changed our celebration ” he said with a smile.
Men’s Doubles final:
Alexis LEBRUN Felix LEBRUN (France) – Anton KALLBERG Truls MOREGARD (Sweden) 3-0 (11-2 11-6 11-8)
Semi final:
Alexis LEBRUN Felix LEBRUN (France) – Maciej KOLODZIEJCZYK Vladislav URSU (Austria Moldova) 3-0 (11-5 11-9 11-3)
Anton KALLBERG Truls MOREGARD (Sweden) – Mattias FALCK Kristian KARLSSON (Sweden) 3-0 (12-10 11-6 11-2)
