Félix Lebrun won the European men's singles title in Ljubljana, beating Sweden's Anton Källberg 4-3 in the final. The top seed, 20 years old, took the last game 11-1 at Arena Stožice to complete a golden double.
From 2-3 down to the best game of his life
Källberg opened the final by taking the first game 11-7. Lebrun answered to lead, winning the second and third games 11-9 and 13-11. The Swede, ranked 29th in the world, then won the fourth and fifth games 11-8 and 11-9 to move 3-2 ahead.
At that point Lebrun told his coach his serve was not good enough to run the tactical plan, so he chose to fight for every point. The change worked at once: he led the sixth game 8-3 and closed it 11-6. In the decider he won the last nine points, taking it 11-1 in under four minutes.
Källberg said he felt confident after moving ahead, then found himself "pretty much helpless" as Lebrun served better and changed his serves. He struggled with the spin and got little from the rallies. The result gave Källberg his first European singles medal, and he had also finished runner-up in the doubles.
Succeeding his brother on the European throne
This was Lebrun's first European singles gold and his second continental title of 2026. The men's doubles crown had come 24 hours earlier, when he and brother Alexis beat Källberg and Kristian Karlsson 3-2 to defend their title. Lebrun had reached the final by beating France's Léo De Nodrest 4-2 in the semifinals, after trailing 2-1.
Alexis had won the European singles title in Linz in 2024, so Félix now follows his brother as champion. Alexis, the defending champion, had gone out to Germany's Dang Qiu in the quarterfinals. His own record carries Olympic singles and team bronze from Paris 2024, and in August 2026 he became the first Frenchman to win a WTT Grand Smash singles title, in Malmö.
"I played the best game of my life in the last one," Lebrun said afterwards, calling the final a turnaround he had not expected. He said he was proud to succeed Alexis two years on, and would enjoy the title with family and friends once he returned home to Montpellier.
