The Portuguese Marcos Freitas qualified for the final of the men’s singles table tennis tournament at the 2023 European Games in Krakow this Tuesday and defeated the Frenchman Alexis Lebrun 4-2, guaranteeing at least the silver medal.
Freitas, 35 years old and 60. arrangement world, took his third medal at the European Games and added two more by teams in previous editions, beating the world’s 18th 11-9, 7-11, 8-11, 12-10, 11-8 and 11-6 .
Also this Tuesday, at 7:20 PM local time (6:20 PM in Lisbon), he will contest the final against Félix Lebrun, the brother of his opponent in the semifinals, who takes 31st position in the hierarchy, defeating Croatian Andrej Gacina, 28 . º, 4-0 (11-9, 11-4, 11-3 and 13-11), in a game of only 22 minutes.
In their semi-final, the Madeiran came off better, winning the first leg 11-9, with Lebrun, aged 19, looking for his best game before winning 11-7 and 11-8.
Still, the more experienced Portuguese pushed himself on with more confidence in the next three, all showing his ability to recover from several point disadvantages to stay in the game and win.
“I’m very happy with my performance. It was a physical game, with a lot of long points. We’ve never played against each other before and I understand why they beat so many good players. (.. .) I’m happy to be focused , now I have to rest and prepare for the final,” said the Portuguese after the victory.
Now he takes on Félix Lebrun, just 16 years old and regarded as a ‘prodigy’ of the table tennis world, probably determined to ‘avenge’ his older brother’s defeat.
Portugal won the men’s team gold medal in Baku2015 and the bronze in Minsk2019, in which Fu Yu won the women’s singles tournament, already securing a fourth podium for the modality in European Games.
So far, Portugal has nine podiums in Kraków2023, namely three gold, three silver and three bronze, in addition to three other “metals” already achieved, two in muaythai and this one in table tennis.
The third edition of the European Games will run until Sunday in Krakow and in Poland’s Malopolska region, with 30 sports on the program and 48 participating countries, including Portugal, which has a delegation of more than 200 athletes.
Source: DN
