Lebrun brothers drawn in same eighth, could meet in Round of 16

The Lebrun brothers, Alexis and Félix, are set to face each other in the last 16 at the 2025 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships (WTTC) Finals if both make it that far in Doha, Qatar, later this month.

Ninth seed Alexis and younger brother Félix, who is seeded sixth, found out their fates after the draw for the WTTC Finals was held on Wednesday (30 April), putting the French siblings – and doubles partners – in the same eighth of the draw.

To get that far, Alexis will have to beat Togo's Kokou Fanny in the first round, one of Eric Jouti (Brazil) or Lin Yen-Chun (Chinese Taipei) in the last 64, then potentially 17th seed An Jaehyun of Republic of Korea in the third round.

Félix, meanwhile, faces Slovakia's Ľubomír Pištej in the round of 128 and will come up against one of Tiago Apolonia (Portugal) or Manush Shah (India) if he makes it to the second round. Another Republic of Korea paddler, Oh Junsung, lies in wait in the last 32.

However, as top seeds in the men's doubles draw, they have received a bye into the second round of that competition, giving the brothers extra time to recover with one fewer match to play.

Meanwhile, first seed Lin Shidong of People's Republic of China is set to face England's Liam Pitchford not once but twice.

Pitchford has had the misfortune of getting drawn against the world number one in both men's singles as well as mixed doubles alongside his Welsh playing partner Anna Hursey, as they will face Lin and Kuai Man in the first round of that draw.

If Lin makes it past Pitchford, and as expected makes a deep run in the tournament, Chinese teammate Liang Jingkun, the fifth seed, is his likely quarter-final opponent.

Meanwhile, second seed Wang Chuqin opens his campaign against Nandan Naresh of the USA, while recent Men's Singles World Cup champion Hugo Calderano of Brazil, the third seed, plays Mexico's Rogelio Castro in the opening round.

In the women's draw, the top two seeds Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu have both received byes to the round of 64. With Chinese players taking each of the top four seeds in this category, they have all avoided each other in separate quarters of the draw.

However, third seed Chen Xingtong could play compatriot Shi Xunyao – seeded 16th as the fifth women's singles player from China – if they both make it to the quarter-finals.

The only reigning Olympic champions taking part this year are the mixed doubles gold medallists from Paris 2024, Wang Chuqin / Sun Yingsha. They are seeded second and face US pair Jishan Liang / Amy Wang in the opening round.

More notably, a tasty second-round match awaits if, as expected, both they and Brazil's Calderano / Bruna Takahashi both make it past the round of 64.

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