Posted by Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday October 3, 2024
Carlos Alcaraz again Jannik SinnerInternational tennis competition has been likened to ‘ping pong’ by many experts.
This week at the China Open, Olympic men’s singles silver medalist Alcaraz, who won the Beijing singles title, got to meet real table tennis champions.
Paris Olympics medalists gathered at the China Open as Alcaraz mixed with table gold, silver and bronze medalists from China, Sweden and France, respectively.
Alcaraz, who defeated Sinner in a thrilling three-set final on Wednesday evening, met Olympic gold medalist Fan Zhengdong, who was also present in Alcaraz’s round of 16 match, participating in the coin toss.
“Obviously a special guest in China, getting a gold medal, it’s good to have him here. I hope he enjoyed my game,” said Alcaraz, who won his 200th tour medal on Sunday. “Yes, it was a good day for me.”
After his first-round win over France’s Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard on Friday, Alcaraz met with table tennis singles and team silver medalist Truls Moregardh of Sweden and team bronze medalists France, brothers Alexis and Felix Lebrun and Simon Gauzy. 18-year-old Felix Lebrun, one of the sport’s young stars, also won a solo bronze medal in Paris.
Table tennis stars have watched Alcaraz play and are big fans of the game. They took time off schedule in Beijing to prepare for the WTT China SMASH event, which started on Saturday and runs until October 6.
“I have always enjoyed watching tennis and my brother (Alexis) and I try to play tennis when we return home to Montpellier,” said Felix, who is number 5 in the World Table Tennis rankings. “It was great to go to the China Open to see the best tennis players and meet different players like (Carlos) Alcaraz and (Daniil) Medvedev.”
It’s no surprise that Lebrun was impressed with Alcaraz’s powerful court circulation.
“Carlos is fast and very strong on the court,” he said. “He’s very nice to look at and he’s a nice guy too. When we met him, we talked a little about the Olympics and other things about his game, but it was a pleasure to meet him and I was happy to see him play.”
The French team is also friends with countryman Eduard Roger-Vasselin, who after his two-time win in the first round, joined the bronze medalists in their seats at Lotus Court to watch the conclusion of the Alcaraz-Mpetshi Perricard match.
The 22-year-old Moregardh, a two-time silver medalist in Paris, also enjoyed her day at the China Open. “My experience at the China Open was very good, good players, good people, good court, great tennis matches, high quality and making the fans come to watch,” said the Swede.
Tournament director Lars Graff, who is from Sweden, added: “It was great to have the silver medalist from Sweden at the Paris Olympic Games here. I’m very happy to have him here with the French players, the future is table tennis, two young brothers, one was a semi-finalist and He won the bronze medal and they won the team bronze medal It is China, Sweden and France that currently dominate in table tennis.
“They are very excited to come to the China Open and I am excited to go to the WTT to see how they run a world-class table tennis tournament.”
