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 on the China Open, Olympic males’s singles silver medalist Alcaraz, who claimed the singles title in Beijing, received to fulfill the actual desk tennis professionals.
Paris Olympics medalists gathered on the China Open as Alcaraz mingled with desk tennis gold, silver and bronze medalists from China, Sweden and France, respectively.
Alcaraz, who defeated Sinner in an exhilarating three-set ultimate on Wednesday night, met with Olympic gold medalist Fan Zhengdong, who additionally was available Alcaraz’s spherical of 16 match, collaborating in a ceremonial coin toss.
“Clearly a particular visitor in China, getting the gold medalist, nice having him right here. I hope he loved my match,” mentioned Alcaraz, who earned his 2 hundredth profession tour-level win on Sunday. “Yeah, it was an excellent day for me.”
After his first-round win over Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard on Friday, Alcaraz met desk tennis singles and workforce silver medalist Truls Moregardh of Sweden together with the French workforce bronze medalists, brothers Alexis and Felix Lebrun and Simon Gauzy. The 18-year-old Felix Lebrun, who is likely one of the sport’s younger stars, additionally was a singles bronze medalist in Paris.
The desk tennis stars watched Alcaraz’s match and are huge followers of the game. They took day trip of the schedule in Beijing in preparation for the WTT China SMASH occasion, which started on Saturday and runs by October 6.
“I’ve all the time loved watching tennis and my brother (Alexis) and I attempt to play tennis once we are again dwelling in Montpellier,”mentioned Felix, who’s No. 5 within the World Desk Tennis rankings. “It was nice to go to the China Open and see the very best tennis gamers and in addition meet the totally different gamers like (Carlos) Alcaraz and (Daniil) Medvedev.”
Not surprisingly, Lebrun is impressed with Alcaraz’s dynamic courtroom protection.
“Carlos is so quick and really dynamic on the courtroom,” he mentioned. “He’s excellent to observe and he’s a pleasant man as effectively. Once we met him we talked a little bit bit concerning the Olympics and a little bit bit about his match, nevertheless it was a pleasure to fulfill him and it was nice to observe him play.”
The French workforce are additionally pals of countryman Eduoard Roger-Vasselin, who after his first spherical doubles win, met with the bronze medalists of their seats on Lotus Court docket to observe the conclusion of the Alcaraz-Mpetshi Perricard match.
The 22-year-old Moregardh, who was a two-time silver medalist in Paris, additionally loved his day on the China Open. “My expertise on the China Open was incredible, nice gamers, nice individuals, nice area, incredible tennis matches, tremendous prime quality and activites for the followers to come back and watch,” mentioned the Swede.
Co-tournament director Lars Graff, who hails from Sweden, added: “It was nice to have the silver medalist from Sweden within the Paris Olympic Video games come right here. I used to be extraordinarily proud to have him right here and in addition the French gamers, the way forward for desk tennis, two younger brothers, one was a semifinalist and received the bronze medal and so they received the workforce bronze medal as effectively. It’s China, Sweden and France dominating now in desk tennis.
“They actually loved coming to the China Open and I loved going to WTT to see how they conduct a world class desk tennis event.”
