Look out for France's Lebrun brothers. At the WTT Youth Contender Havirov, named for its host city in the Czech Republic, les frères Lebrun ran roughshod over the competition, each claiming a WTT title. Younger brother Felix (right), 14, is a stylistic anomaly. Listed 187th in the WTT youth rankings, Felix is the first native European player in two generations to successfully employ the penhold grip on the world stage, after Serbia's Zoran Kalinić. Seeded 11th in the Under 17 Boys' Singles, Felix fought his way to the final, where he met none other than Eduard Ionescu of Romania. The world's 46th-ranked youth, Ionescu was seeded third in the U-17. Unimpressed, the French penholder claimed the title in four games. "I’m really happy to win, it’s euphoria right now!" said Felix. "The final is always really difficult, especially when I was losing, those were mentally really difficult moments." Felix's older brother Alexis (left), 17, is currently #90 in the World Table Tennis (WTT) youth rankings. In the Under 19 Boys' Singles, he was seeded a distant 21st. In the semifinals, Alexis took on top seed Kay Stumper of Germany, world #2 in the same category. Despite Stumper's overwhelming numerical advantage, the scorecard soon read 3-0 in the Frenchman's favor. In yesterday's U-19 final, Alexis met none other than Eduard Ionescu, the same 16-year-old who tried (and failed) to take his younger brother Felix's lunch money the day before. In the battle of surprise finalists, Alexis took a page out of his younger brother's playbook, besting the 11th-seeded Ionescu 3-1 for the U-19 title. With up to 100 annual events in the new WTT Youth Series, expect to see a lot of the Lebrun brothers in coming years. Also, if you have adopted the currently stylish habit of wagering on table tennis, don't bet against them based solely on their ranking.

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