Last Updated on May 16, 2024 by Alex Horscroft
Felix Lebrun is one of France’s most promising young table tennis players. In this post, I cover his equipment, playstyle, most difficult opponents, and other interesting information.
Felix Lebrun’s Key Info
Name: Felix Lebrun
Nationality: French
Date of Birth: 12th September 2006
Grip: Penholder
Style: Looper (righty)
Highest ranking: 5 (March 2024)
Height: 5 ft 10 in
Felix Lebrun’s Equipment in 2024
Felix Lebrun’s Blade
Felix Lebrun is a Tibhar-sponsored athlete. He uses the blade that was created for him by designers at the company — the Tibhar Felix Lebrun Hyper Carbon. It features Hyper carbon layers adjacent to the inner ply and uses limba wood for the external ply.
Prior to switching to the Felix Lebrun Hyper Carbon, he was using the Shang Kun Hybrid AC; another blade by Tibhar. If we go back even further, Felix was sporting the Butterfly Innerforce ZLC
Felix Lebrun’s Rubbers
Most players stick to popular rubbers such as Tenergy and Dignics, but not Felix. He uses Tibhar K3 Hybrid on both sides.
This makes him one of only three players that I could find in the men’s top 50 who use the rubber. The others are his brother, Alexis Lebrun, and Jorgic Darko. Both are Tibhar-sponsored athletes.
However, I should note that Felix was using Dignics rubbers before his sponsorship with Tibhar. Dignics 09C was his rubber of choice.
Felix Lebrun’s Playstyle
Top Backhand for a Penholder
Lebrun is a penholder which means his playstyle differs significantly from many of the other top pros as the shakehand grip dominates. That being said, he does use the reverse penhold backhand (RPB) which makes it easier to compete on his backhand side.
On paper, shakehanders should still have the advantage here. However, Felix’s backhand is one of his strongest qualities, and it seems he has improved a lot here in less than a year. He just destroyed Harimoto 3-0 at the Saudi Smash 2024, and it all stemmed from his backhand which was just too powerful, accurate, and consistent.
Strange Serving Grip
I was watching a video where Xu Xin broke down his thoughts on Felix and he raised an interesting point that I had missed.
Felix has a strange tendency to remove his thumb from the paddle during his serve. It just hangs behind the paddle, not really doing anything. Why he does this, I have no idea. By removing his thumb he has less control over his racket and I wouldn’t be surprised if his spin suffers as a result.
That being said, his serves still seem to be very effective against his opponents. There must be a reason he does it, I just can’t work out what it is.
His Crossover and Left-Handed Players Are Weaknesses
Playing with RPB as opposed to traditional penhold introduces a crossover, and this is an area where Felix suffers somewhat. Xu Xin highlights this in the video I linked above.
He also goes on to say that Felix is not well suited to left-handed players. He explains that it is in part due to his backhand grip which promotes sidespin topspin balls. These swerve towards a leftie’s forehand which is the stronger side.
Yet there’s more to this. Another reason Felix suffers against lefties is because he doesn’t move to play backhand flicks on his forehand side as much as he should. Instead, he plays a forehand push/chop — even against some topspin serves. This puts him at a disadvantage.
Felux Lebrun in Action!
Felix Lebrun’s Career
A Table Tennis Family
Felix Lebrun was thrust headfirst into the table tennis world from a very young age. His father, Stéphane, peaked at rank 7 in France and his uncle reached even greater heights, playing for the country at the Olympics on three separate occasions.
Not only did Lebrun have excellent coaches in his father and uncle, but he also had the perfect training partner in his older brother Alexis. This helped him develop much faster than other players.
Domination at the Cadet Level
After winning the French Championship for mini-cadets, Felix continued his hot streak, placing second in the men’s singles and winning the mini-cadet doubles. Next year he would go on to win the French Cadet Championship in both the men’s singles and mini-cadet doubles.
These are titles he would successfully defend the year after, and although he couldn’t manage a gold medal at the European Junior Championships, he did claim two bronze medals in the doubles and team events.
Lebrun’s hot streak continued in 2020 when he narrowly lost to his older brother at the French Junior Championships. The next year, he would get his revenge at the same tournament. Also in 2020, Felix secured a gold medal at the European Youth Top 10. Then in 2021, Felix overcame Iulian Chirita 4-1 to win the cadet boy’s singles event at the European Youth Championships in Varazdin. He also claimed the doubles title.
Continued Success at Senior Level
Felix first entered the men’s world rankings at the age of 15 in September 2021, and after climbing to rank 77 in May 2022, he hovered at a similar rank for 8 months. Yet he would place well at a series of events that helped him climb up the ranks. These included a bronze medal at the European Team Championships and a gold at the Krakow European Games.
As a result, by the end of 2023, Felix had climbed to a staggering 8th position at just 17 years old. One would expect that Felix’s progress may have halted there, but you’d be wrong. In 2024 he secured a title at the WTT Star Contender Goa. Felix also represented the French men’s team at the 2024 World Championships, enabling them to advance to the finals. Currently, he sits 5th in the world rankings, a monumental achievement.
Felix Lebrun’s Toughest Opponents
Felix Lebrun vs. Alexis Lebrun
Sibling rivalry is interesting in sports, I should know! I’m a twin and my brother was my training partner and rival growing up!
With Felix and Alexis, the former has always been playing catch up — the three years Alexis has on Felix makes a big difference. The pair are also intimately familiar with each other’s game which makes it difficult to use their usual tricks.
They have met only twice at official matches with Alexis winning both. However, Felix estimates they have met on around 7 occasions throughout all competitions, and he is yet to secure a win.
Felix Lebrun vs. Ma Long
Felix has faced off against The Dragon four times dating back to 2022, and while he has lost them all, he has won at least one game in every showing. I find this to be mighty impressive.
He even lost narrowly 3-2 at the 2023 WTT Star Contender Lanzhou which demonstrates he could clinch a win against the greatest player of all time at some point in the future.
Felix Lebrun vs. Wang Chuqin
Wang Chuqin is a lefty and the current world number one, so the odds are stacked against Felix here. Of their two face-offs, he has lost 3-1 and 3-0. The latest match was brief, with Felix winning only 15 points across all games.
| Opponents | Wins | Losses | Win Rate |
| Alexis Lebrun | 0 | ~7 | 0% |
| Ma Long | 0 | 4 | 0% |
| Wang Chuqin | 0 | 2 | 0% |
| Kristian Karlsson | 0 | 2 | 0% |
| Fan Zhendong | 0 | 1 | 0% |
Felix Lebrun’s Gold Medals
Senior Titles
🏆 WTT Star Contender Goa — Singles (2024)
🏆 French National Championships — Doubles (2024)
🏆 WTT Star Contender Lanzhou — Doubles (2023)
🏆 WTT Antalya — Singles (2023)
🏆 Krakow European Games Champion (2023)
🏆 French Doubles (2022)
Youth Titles
🏆 French National Championships — Junior Singles (2022)
🏆 World Champion — U15 doubles (2021)
🏆 European Cadet Singles Championships (2021)
🏆 European Cadet Doubles Championships (2021)
🏆 European Cadet Team Championships (2021)
🏆 European Youth Top-10 (2020)
🏆 French Cadet Champion — Singles (2020, 2019)
🏆 France Minimes — Singles (2018, 2019)
🏆 France Minimes — Doubles (2018, 2019)
🏆 Euro Mini Champs (2017, 2018)
Closing Thoughts
Felix Lebrun is a penholder with a reverse penhold backhand who uses the Felix Lebrun Hyper Carbon and Tibhar K3 Hybrid rubbers on both sides.
He was hugely successful at the cadet level and has quickly risen through the ranks at the senior level, reaching a rank of #5 worldwide. However, he has some way to go before he breaches the top 3. If he can sort out the holes in his game such as his mental weakness and trouble with lefties, who knows how far he can go — he hasn’t even hit his prime yet.
Featured image: Granada (Wikimedia Commons) under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license | unedited
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I've been playing table tennis since the age of 14 and have competed against some of the top players in England. While I love playing, I also really enjoy coaching too!
Blade: Butterfly Timo Boll ALC | Rubbers: Nittaku Fastarc G-1
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