Table tennis: The Blues are on the right track

Fabien Le Floc’h, Media365 : published on Sunday, May 10, 2026 at 11:51 AM

France once again fell short against China in the semi-finals of the World Championships on Saturday in London (1-3), but the gap appears to be narrowing between the two nations.

The French believed, but it wasn’t meant to be this time. Facing China in the semi-finals of the World Championships, the French men’s table tennis team did not manage to pull off a win (1-3) against the world’s top nation, which has won eleven consecutive titles since 2001. Like in the World Championships final and the Olympic Games final two years ago, the mountain was too high for the French.

“There’s disappointment and sadness, we were both close and not really close at the same time,” noted Felix Lebrun after the defeat. “Collectively, we are not far from them. They won, but it could have been us.” The turning point was likely the third match, where Alexis Lebrun faced Liang Jingkun (21st). The score was even between France and China, and the Frenchman won the first two sets decisively before missing two match points and eventually losing (3-11, 1-11, 15-13, 12-10, 11-2). Frustrating.

Alexis Lebrun defeated

“It’s disappointment, and it’s very high,” admitted the eldest of the Lebrun brothers to L’Equipe. “Alexis’s match is crucial, even though we were far from winning behind him. This victory in the third match gave them a good boost,” analyzed his brother Felix. This sentiment was shared by the French team’s coach, Nathanael Molin. “It’s a match where there are match points, it’s the pivotal match, it’s the heart of the contest,” he acknowledged. “Alexis had the chances to finish it.”

Despite the disappointment, the French team is pleased to have stood their ground against this Chinese team led by world number one Wang Chuqin, who qualified China for the final by subsequently defeating Felix Lebrun in four sets (13-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-4), for the eighth consecutive time. “We’ve gotten closer compared to two years ago, in Busan and at the Olympics. We are on the right path,” assures the younger of the Lebrun brothers. Nathanael Molin is also convinced that this French team is only at the beginning of the journey. “We are strong today, we will be stronger in two years, even stronger in four, and probably in six years,” he promises. The question remains whether this will be enough to one day finally defeat China.