Felix Lebrun stood at 1-3 down. The world No. 6 was a set away from being eliminated by the man who had taken down World No. 1 Wang Chuqin the day before. The Chongqing arena, however, did not believe it was over.
Lebrun then won three sets in a row, each by an identical 11-6 scoreline, to beat Japan's Sora Matsushima 4-3 and reach the WTT Champions Chongqing final. The full score line over seven sets read 7-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-13, 11-6, 11-6, 11-6 — the kind of comeback that gives the sport its rare appointment-television moments, completed in front of more than 10,000 spectators in mainland China.
The crowd was a critical part of the story. Lebrun, the 19-year-old Frenchman who has become one of the WTT circuit's most engaging performers, had Chongqing in his corner for an unusual reason: Matsushima had upset hometown hero Wang Chuqin in the quarterfinals 8-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-8, 8-11, 11-9. With the Chinese No. 1 out, the partisan crowd shifted its energy in Lebrun's direction.
One teenage spectator told the broadcast crew her reasoning in plain terms.
"The Japanese player beat our idol Wang Chuqin," she said.
Lebrun's comeback win sets a final against Chinese player Wen Ruibo, who pulled off his own upset in the other semi-final against Japan's world No. 5 Tomokazu Harimoto. Wen, the world No. 27, won an even more chaotic seven-set match 6-11, 15-13, 11-5, 7-11, 11-7, 21-19 — with the marathon second set and the 21-19 decider one of the longest in the WTT format's history.
For Lebrun, the comeback is the latest in a young career that has already produced two major French breakthroughs. He has been the most visible new face in European men's table tennis since 2024, when he and brother Alexis began emerging as a doubles and singles pair on the senior tour. He played his way into the Paris 2024 men's singles bronze playoff and has since been a fixture in the WTT semi-final rounds.
The Chongqing form is not isolated. Lebrun won a WTT title in Lausanne earlier in 2026 and signalled his ambitions clearly enough that European compound table tennis pundits regard him as Europe's strongest counter to the Chinese senior men's dominance.
A Lebrun-Wen final is also a curious dynamic for the WTT circuit. Wen is ranked No. 27 in the world but has consistently been within China's national senior pool, often used as a sparring partner for the country's top names. His upset of Harimoto removes a player who had been positioned by some Japanese commentators as a possible Wang Chuqin successor on the senior tour.
In the women's draw, the semi-finals produced a different but equally Chinese-leaning bracket. China's fifth-ranked Kuai Man beat sixth-ranked Wang Yidi 4-1 to reach the final. She will face Japan's eighth-ranked Miwa Harimoto, who beat Satsuki Odo in five sets, in the women's final.
The takeaway from the day in Chongqing is twofold. China's senior men's primacy is no longer guaranteed at every event — Matsushima beat Wang Chuqin in five sets. And the next French men's generation is no longer a curiosity. Lebrun completed a 1-3 deficit comeback against a player who had just beaten the world No. 1. Whoever wins the final between Lebrun and Wen, the WTT Champions Chongqing event has already produced one of the standout men's semi-final stories of the 2026 season.
Men's and women's finals were scheduled for the following day in front of the same Chongqing crowd that turned Lebrun's deficit into a celebration.