Paris 2024 Olympics: Alexis Lebrun and Simon Gozi fall at the start in Jeddah, status quo for qualification for the Games

He had few illusions when he saw what the Saudi Smash draw had in store for him in Jeddah. Facing world No. 1 Wang Chuqin in the first round, Simon Gauzi expressed his bitterness at X by soberly writing “Lol.” Two days later, the miracle did not happen and the Toulouse was unable to compete with the Chinese, losing in three sets.

After a first set in which he didn’t see the light of day (down 11-3), Gauzy nearly evened the score before losing the second set (13-11). A third round loss (11-9) confirmed his defeat to a much stronger opponent.

Minutes after the world No. 22’s defeat, his compatriot Alexis Lebrun also began his Saudi tournament. The 11th ranked player in the world was facing German Dmitry Ovcharov, the eldest of the Lebrun brothers.

Having won the first set, he then lost the second before convincingly regaining the lead (11-3 in the third set). But his opponent, who was fifteen years older than him, managed to snatch the decisive fifth set, win the match and reach the 1/8 finals.

In the men’s draw, two other Frenchmen were not yet in the race. On Sunday, world number five Felix Lebrun will meet Kazakhstan’s Kirill Gerassimenko (ranked 39th), while Can Akkuzu, who has qualified, will face world number 17 Slovenian Darko Jorgic.

Reigning French No. 3 Alexis Lebrun (No. 32) missed the opportunity to score big points in the world rankings as he hopes to get back to the level of No. 22 Simon Gozi, who is currently the top singles qualifier for the Olympics. The next big event will take place at the end of the month during the championship in Chongqing, China.