SINGAPORE – He is not old enough to legally sip wine, but Felix Lebrun has been savouring some champagne table tennis en route to becoming the top-ranked non-Chinese men’s singles player at just 17.

On a day when Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha retained their Singapore Smash mixed doubles crown and extended China’s perfect record to 11 titles since the US$1.5 million (S$2 million) event began in 2022, the French wunderkind signalled his intent to break the Chinese stranglehold.