Paris 2024 Olympics. Powerful striker, inspiration: who is the Brazilian Calderano, Alexis Lebrun’s opponent in the 8th finals ?

Hugo Calderano avait atteint les quarts de finale aux JO de Tokyo. MAXPPP – TERESA SUAREZ

Brazilian Hugo Calderano is Alexis Lebrun's opponent this Wednesday, July 31 (4 p.m.), in the round of 16 of the table tennis singles tournament. A danger well known to the Montpellier native.

The road is getting higher, the danger is getting stronger for the Lebrun brothers. From this Wednesday and the round of 16 of the singles tournament, the fights will stretch out and the difficulty will increase significantly for the gifted Hérault players. Particularly for the older of the two, Alexis, who will face Hugo Calderano, the Brazilian currently ranked world No. 7 and a real threat.

"Now, I'm going to be a little more in the position of outsider", slipped the 20-year-old Montpellier, Monday, after a 16th final dispatched at speed of lightning (4-0). Calderano had to wait until Tuesday morning to punch his ticket against the Spaniard Alvaro Robles (4-2). And thus confirm a tempting meeting between two men who have few secrets from each other.

Alexis Lebrun: "I took a lot of inspiration from him"

"I took a lot of inspiration from him when I was younger, smiled the Héraultais on the subject 28 years older than him. He has very great physical qualities, he develops a game with a lot of power and variations."

Apart from their clash last March in Incheon, won by the South American, Lebrun and Calderano were able to measure themselves against each other in Ochsenhausen. Considered the Mecca of the little white ball, the German village has long been the Brazilian's club. There, the selections carry out numerous training courses. Among them, the French team and therefore the Lebrun brothers. “He's a guy we trained with a lot since he was in the same structure as Simon Gauzy”, explained Alexis, qualified in singles at the Olympics at the expense of the Toulouse player, still licensed in the German club. “So I know his qualities and he knows mine. If he passes his turn, it's going to be a big fight, a big match”, continued the Montpellier player, Monday.

“All for the attack”!”

Since Tuesday, he has had it clear: after his brother Félix, beaten twice this year by the Brazilian, the last time in June in Ljubljana, he will cross paths with the Rio native. In Brazil, where he won senior tournaments at 13, Calderano was quickly spotted by the Frenchman Jean-René Mounier, former coach of Levallois who became his mentor.

Having left for France at 16 to furtively join Insep, shaped by Mounier in Germany and at home, this fan of Jean-Philippe Gatien has developed an atypical game. “The goal is all about attack! Play harder, faster, closer. When you attack him, he attacks even harder”, described to L’Équipe the Frenchman, at the head of a staff that is almost 100% French.

Rubik’s Cube in less than ten seconds and top 10 for 7 years

"Mental warfare", table tennis holds no secrets for the quarter-finalist of the Tokyo Olympics, an athlete with a very full head, capable of finishing a Rubik’s Cube in less than ten seconds and speaking several languages.

Intellectual abilities at the service of an ambition: a member of the world's top 10 for seven years (!), twice the victor of the legendary Fan Zhendong, the Carioca wants “to be number 1". “I can be better than the Chinese. That's why I get up every morning and train hard", he told the Olympics.com website. His ambition goes through Paris. That of Alexis Lebrun too. With a shadow from Rio to erase.

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