European table tennis champion Dang Qiu lost to 17-year-old super talent Felix Lebrun at the WTT Champions tournament in Frankfurt on Thursday evening (November 2nd, 2023). For Nina Mittelham it was also over in the round of 16.
The 27-year-old Dang Qiu from Borussia Düsseldorf lost to the Frenchman in 0-3 sets and could do little against the great talent’s brisk offensive game.
In eighth position, Lebrun is the youngest player in the top 10 of the current table tennis world rankings. At the age of 16, he won the title at the European Games in the summer. His brother and doubles partner Alexis Lebrun, who is three years older, is also one of the best 25 players in the world.
Mittelham fails due to Olympic bronze medalist
Nina Mittelham was also the last German player to be eliminated from the women’s competition on Thursday evening. Despite a strong performance, the vice-European champion lost 2:3 against Olympic bronze medalist Mima Ito from Japan.
From a German perspective, only Dimitrij Ovtcharov is still in the tournament. The former world number one will meet Ma Long in the quarterfinals (Friday, November 3rd, 2023, in the Sportschau live stream from around 8:45 p.m.), which will result in a big Olympic revenge.
At the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, Ovtcharov and Ma Long delivered an epic semi-final, which the 35-year-old German lost 9:11 in the seventh set to the three-time singles world champion.