FULL MATCH | Felix Lebrun vs Hugo Calderano | MS QF | #EuropeSmash 2026

All it takes is just a rough event or two and suddenly a bunch of points just melt away from under you. But it's a big opportunity for both of these players to get a lot of points. We've got six titles to his name, a 19-year-old. How did he get here? Well, he beat Eddie Ionescu 3-1 in the round of 64, Park Ganghyun 3-0 in the round of 32, and Thibaut Poiré. Thibaut Poiré is an incredible player. But when he played against Félix Zidane, it really didn't quite look the same way. The last time these guys faced the major event here, the Champions Chongqing, it came down to the decider, the wire. Félix would take down Hugo Calderano. Man. So, Hugo Calderano, 30 years old on the other side, 11 WTT titles to his name. Quite a bit more. The world number eight's been a pro for half of his life. Could have done long jump, could have gone pro in volleyball. Got through Berrien Bloch, got through Maharu Yoshimura, only dropping a game, and Anders Lind in the round of 16. We'll take a look at that here. The Strawberry King on receive against two match points. Takes his chances, and Hugo Calderano played well as he does. Oh, quick handshake. Think Anders probably wasn't in the best mood at the moment. It's not easy. Look at the leg muscles of Hugo Calderano. Look at the prize money, 1.55 milli. And look at the points up for grabs. Champion gets 2,000 points. That's the same as, well, winning an Olympic gold. Hugo. Let's see here, we got a Felix Ebrard. Bora, Hugo. Fan vote 54% behind the thrill from Brazil. Vamos. Bye, Hugo, let's go. Come on. 46. What's this one say? New park, just a nice sweater, good glasses. Calderano to serve. Love all. It's okay. If you don't have a sign, you can still come looking fresh. That's right. So close fan vote here. Best of seven, here we go. One, love. The line. The line that Fang Zhendong remembers quite well. 2018, and then again years later, Hugo would find that line. Love, two. Play table tennis. So Felix won their last two encounters, but Chongqing was the last. Love, two. Two games in a row, 13-11. One, two. Interestingly enough, Felix came back one-three to win three games in a row in that match. You might recall throughout Felix's career that at times a whole bunch of points will go against him and suddenly he screams or roars and everything changes. Three, two. Oh, the wrap on this. Hugo. Are those H's on his shoulder? Is that part of the design? Looks like him to me. Focused here through the focal lenses. Three, all. Third seed gets his third point. High toss from Hugo, much like his partner Bruna. Kunip Ja, Yuan Ja Nan, to name a few. Four, three. Footwork tested. Steps around here in a head-scratching moment for Coach Paco. What a save, Hugo, with an awkward ball there early on in this rally. Five, four. Build your own player. Table tennis daily in WTT made a build your own player. You could ask players who they would choose. Five, all. And overwhelmingly, professionals chose Hugo Calderano for power. Six, five. It's just amazing to me, the speed of Felix Lebrun's serve. His whole game, it's based around this fast, aggressive style. Oh, no. What? He didn't turn on the blinker. Come on, man. Felix is there. Hugo, omnipresent in this point. He just floats across the table. Seven. Good coverage in the middle, a little bit towards that elbow. Eight, six. Eight, seven. Three. Eight, all. I think if you're younger than 40 and you play professional table tennis, penhold, that shot must be in your game. Nine, eight. Almost seemed like he was asking for a yellow. It's okay. Nine, all. Long push, nine points apiece. And he immediately sends Hugo behind the table, leaning back to recover. Nine, ten. Ten, all. Come on. Eleven, ten. Eleven, all. Eleven, twelve. Twelve, all. Thirteen, twelve. Thirteen, all. Twelve. Thirteen, fourteen. Fourteen, all. Fifteen, fourteen. Whatever the fortune was here, the fox, but just in the way that it curved. Game point again, Félix. Sixteen, fourteen. Game number five. In their head-to-head. And he's ahead, 1-0. The young French star leads in his best of seven. For me, when I play table tennis, I find that it's still better a little bit in the middle than flat, reverse, flat, reverse. I think it's especially when you come from afar. You did well at the beginning of the set. But your ideas are good. Keep going, it's good. Time. Come on! Second game. The arm, everything. There, all. Come on! There. Come on! We can't be rooting for the same person. We can sit next to each other, but we have to be on opposite sides of the table. Good start here. To continue with the momentum, Félix. One, two. First point on the scoreboard, still quite early in this game. Two, all. Oh, it's so beautiful. Flat, two, all. Two, three. Interesting time. Félix often saves such loud, let's say vocalizing, for moments of... Three, all. Frustration had come much later in a match. For example, after several points in a row having worked out his way. But this one was pretty quick. And he comes back with an edge ace. Three, four. And survives a similar serve minus the edge for Lugo. It's a wonderful serve. And a good enough receive to secure the point. Good defense. While this didn't end the way Félix thought it would have, or at least it ended earlier than he thought it would have, Bruna Takahashi's in the house. Nice. Looking sharp and smart. Five, all. Right now the percentages of serves that have been long to the backhand are abnormally high. Five, all. Five, six. Seven, five. Seven, six. Six, eight. Six, nine. And seven. Eleven to seven. It's a two to zero lead. And he's quick to get out. This full minute with coach Nathanael Molan, Alex Zee, a men's double champion, alongside his lucky charm, Melody. Time. Third game. Calderano to serve. Love, all. One, love. Love, two. Love, three. Three, one. To set up the opportunity. But okay. The Leakes keep some pressure on. You've got to hand it to him. He's playing the third seed after all. Ugo is. Four, one. And a nice surprise with a long push to the baseline here. One, five. Great here at Ugo. A wonderful start. Remember, it's a best of seven, so it's not a must win, but it sort of feels like it is. Two, five. Nice shot by Ugo, straight to the ball, kid. Five, three. Three. The winner here will be playing Darko Jorgic in the next round. Darko's been in wonderful form, had quite a match with Omar Asar. Three, seven. Right back to the corner. Coach Calderano makes a move. Does Nat Malone find it funny? Nope. Left, three, seven. Of course he wouldn't, but good entertainment for the crowd. Three, eight. Just for the record, any coach will sense a humor. Probably seen that and know that. Left, three, eight. Eight, four. That serve is crazy fast. I'm still trying to process how he could hit it that fast. It looks like reverse pendulum, and it sort of is, but there's not a lot of rotation on it. It's almost a square shot. Eight, five. I think if Felix scores one more point, you've got to call a timeout. Looking to save that here, keep it for later and win the point. Ugo, still up by three. Nine. And he saves it, two points away from taking the game. Ugo in control of the scoreboard. Left, five, nine. That happened quickly. Six, nine. Nine, seven. Happy to see his brother doing well. Ten, seven. Commitment, seatbelt shot across the chest here as Ugo goes inside out and sets up three game points to get his first game this match. Eight, ten. This game is still two more points for Ugo as the Sox spin. Once again, but look at the muscles. There's a reason these players take such good care of themselves, so that they can make room for the shot. Big, shiny, pearly whites from Bruno Takahashi there. And man, wraps and everything else. Ugo prepares for action. The battle continues in game four and it's tighter now. Time! Yep, France has become sort of the China of Europe in the sense that the fans will go wherever they can to see their players now. Gotta love it. The people come from all over the world to watch this event. It's just too good to miss. Love, one. I say get on it while you still can because you never know, you might get to meet your favorite players. Two, love. Nice change of pace here from Ugo to slow it down, spin it up. Three, love. Control, Felix. Oh wow, lights on all around. Like the end of a movie. Take a good look at our good looking fans everywhere. Yep. Just a reminder here, last call. Anyone in the crowd want anything? Peanuts? Pretzels? Hmm, can you check the menu? Will you start a line scored? Three, love. So back into the romantic vibes here. The lights are low and the focus on these two at the table. Love, four. Control. Momentum continuing, Ugo finding the answers here. One, four. He serves, he's fast long serves to the backhand. He mixes it up, he sprinkles in some salt from time to time. And there's a reason, so that Ugo sometimes will come in for the banana flip. And here he does, but then he has to, at least he starts to, then he has to backpedal to the back corner. It's tough to do the same serve over and over and over and get points. Even Elias Ranafor in his service game had to change and it was incredibly effective. Four, three. Points one on serve here, 2.3% the better. Felice Rana, 57.8. Four, all. So four points in a row for Felice. Soft hands, penhold grip, a lot of flexibility. Five, four. Four, six. How many kids do you think have started playing table tennis in France in the last two or three years saying, dad I want to play like him. Mom, can I try the penhold grip? Left. Four, seven. Seven of the last eight points. Felice has won momentum. Eight, four. Man. But now it's eight of the last eight. He was down zero, four. There it is. Eight of the last eight. Felice is wrong. Nine, four. That's a tough one for Hugo because it felt like he had the opening. Whatever the fortune was Felice acknowledged it. Four, ten. Geez, man. Ten in a row. He didn't show frustration or anything. He just turned things Eleven, four. Wow. That is stress. But on the other side, satisfaction. Felice leads. Three to one. Okay, roll of honor here. Felice Sebran, the champion of Champions Chongqing. Although Lin Yun-Ju started off the year, Zhou Qihao, Wan Rui Bo, Lu Boyan, Charick, Wang Chuqin. There's Felice. Flavian Coton in Tunis. Wan Rui Bo in Taiyuan. Anders Lin, Legos, Skopje, Darko Jorgic, Im Chang-Hoon, Shunsuke Togami, Sora Matsushima and in Brazil, star contender Ugo Calderano took it and just last week, Tomokazu in Yokohama. He's still in it. Tomo already has his date in the semifinals. It's going to be Sora Matsushima a rematch from last week. Semifinals. That said, with a cute table tennis shirt with Doraemon, Zhang Yijing would be happy. Darko Jorgic is waiting for his date in the semifinals. Calderano to serve. Love all. So we know it's going to take more than a good start here. It will be a fight till the finish, no matter the scoreline. Love one. Surprise factor. There have been a lot of pen holders since Wang Hao's retirement but no one has quite touched the backhand quality of Wang Hao. One all. Beautiful seatbelt shot for Mugo. Left. One, two. I imagine the assistant umpire called it first. Two all. I don't know how the players stay so calm sometimes under pressure. You want something really badly and your opponent's just trying to keep you from it. Three, two. Second bounce there. He cleans the table just in case. In case any particles created a funny bounce. Three all. Very good he says here as the score is leveled now. Felix has managed to come back. Remember last time they played? Left. Three all. The last two were 13-11. Backside of the racket. The variation to get it to come back down Left. Four, three. Three, five. Two. Three, six. Time out. I'm going to tell you something. I know it's difficult and you're very upset. But we can't lose the essence of what you are. You have to enjoy every moment in there. Every second you put in there is worth it. So many mistakes. I know how it is. But we're going to enjoy it. We have to enjoy it. The pleasure of fighting. Even what happened. The pleasure of fighting. The pleasure of fighting. Time. Go table tennis. Basically what it said. It sounded like you said every moment, every second you need to give it your all. Come back for every shot. Let's see. It even sounded like you enjoy every moment and sort of be there. Eight, three. Three, nine. Four, nine. Ten, five. Eleven, five. Game and match for Lebron. Lebron win. Four games to one. Felix as strong as can be. We've seen Hugo. 2025 you could argue he was the man of the year. At least he definitely drew a lot of attention and I think wonderful results lie ahead. But life isn't a plateau. It's valleys. It's mountains. It's rough terrain at times. Sometimes you're flowing like the water.