By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday October 3, 2024
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner‘s otherworldly tennis rivalry has been likened to ‘ping pong’ by many a pundit.
This week at the China Open, Olympic men’s singles silver medalist Alcaraz, who claimed the singles title in Beijing, got to meet the real table tennis pros.
Paris Olympics medalists gathered at the China Open as Alcaraz mingled with table tennis 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 with Olympic gold medalist Fan Zhengdong, who also was on hand Alcaraz’s round of 16 match, taking part in a ceremonial coin toss.
“Obviously a special guest in China, getting the gold medalist, great having him here. I hope he enjoyed my match,” said Alcaraz, who earned his 200th career tour-level win on Sunday. “Yeah, it was a great day for me.”
After his first-round win over Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard on Friday, Alcaraz met table tennis singles and team silver medalist Truls Moregardh of Sweden along with the French team bronze medalists, brothers Alexis and Felix Lebrun and Simon Gauzy. The 18-year-old Felix Lebrun, who is one of the sport’s young stars, also was a singles bronze medalist in Paris.
The table tennis stars watched Alcaraz’s match and are big fans of the sport. They took time out of the schedule in Beijing in preparation for the WTT China SMASH event, which began on Saturday and runs through October 6.
“I have always enjoyed watching tennis and my brother (Alexis) and I try to play tennis when we are back home in Montpellier,” said Felix, who is No. 5 in the World Table Tennis rankings. “It was great to go to the China Open and see the best tennis players and also meet the different players like (Carlos) Alcaraz and (Daniil) Medvedev.”
Not surprisingly, Lebrun is impressed with Alcaraz’s dynamic court coverage.
“Carlos is so fast and very dynamic on the court,” he said. “He’s very good to watch and he is a nice guy as well. When we met him we talked a little bit about the Olympics and a little bit about his match, but it was a pleasure to meet him and it was great to watch him play.”
The French team are also friends of countryman Eduoard Roger-Vasselin, who after his first round doubles win, met with the bronze medalists in their seats on Lotus Court to watch the conclusion of the Alcaraz-Mpetshi Perricard match.
The 22-year-old Moregardh, who was a two-time silver medalist in Paris, also enjoyed his day at the China Open. “My experience at the China Open was fantastic, great players, great people, great arena, fantastic tennis matches, super high quality and activities for the fans to come and watch,” said the Swede.
Co-tournament director Lars Graff, who hails from Sweden, added: “It was great to have the silver medalist from Sweden in the Paris Olympic Games come here. I was extremely proud to have him here and also the French players, the future of table tennis, two young brothers, one was a semifinalist and won the bronze medal and they won the team bronze medal as well. It is China, Sweden, and France dominating now in table tennis.
“They really enjoyed coming to the China Open and I enjoyed going to WTT to see how they conduct a world-class table tennis tournament.”
