The last French pair competing at the World Table Tennis Championships, made up of Simon Gauzy and Prithika Pavade, were eliminated in the quarter-finals (3-1) by the Chinese Shidong Lin and Man Kuai, Wednesday in Durban (South Africa) .
The tricolor duo managed the feat of confiscating a set, the third (11-8), from the Chinese pair, ranked only seventh in the world at the time of the draw, but at the higher level of play. Simon Gauzy and Prithika Pavade ended up yielding in the fourth set (11-9), which they had a time leading 7-3.
In the absence of a medal, difficult to access with this draw, Simon Gauzy took the upper hand over Emmanuel Lebesson with a view to the Paris-2024 Olympics where places will be expensive with the emergence of the brothers Alexis and Félix Lebrun.
The Gauzy-Pavade pair indeed eliminated in the second round their compatriots Emmanuel Lebesson and Jia-Nan Yuan, crowned European champions last summer.
According to the rules for table tennis events at the Olympic Games, each member of the mixed doubles must be part of the trio for the team event. “Less successful in singles over the past two years”, by his own admission, Emmanuel Lebesson was counting on the results in mixed doubles to tip the balance in his favor.
Because between Alexis and Félix Lebrun, Simon Gauzy and therefore Emmanuel Lebesson, they are four for three places.
