by Simon Daish
Leading the line for the French team heading to Halmstad is Simon Gauzy, a player who enjoyed one of his best years in the sport in 2017. Bronze medallist at the 2017 Europe Top 16 Cup, Gauzy went on to reach his first ever Men’s Singles final on the ITTF World Tour and achieved a personal best finish of fourth at the Liebherr 2017 ITTF-Men’s World Cup.
“My injury has now past. I still feel it but my body is almost 100% ready. I have been practising a lot to catch back what I have lost I feel much better now. We would like to get out of the group and then we will see what can happen. It’s hard to set a goal at the WTTTC.” Simon Gauzy
Then there’s 2016 European champion Emmanuel Lebesson, who also has what it takes to battle it out with the best while the remaining squad positions have been handed to Quentin Robinot, Can Akkuzu and Abdel-Kader Salifou.
Last time out at the World Team Championships the French team made a positive early impression with a first position in Group B but exited to England at the quarter-finals stage of the competition.
There have been some encouraging signs for France since that dramatic day in Kuala Lumpur including a third position finish at the Liebherr 2017 European Team Championships.
Earlier this year in the English capital of London, Team France, without the injured Simon Gauzy, narrowly missed out on a semi-finals spot at the 2018 ITTF Team World Cup after suffering a tight 3-2 defeat at the hands of Korea Republic.
Over 20 years have passed since France last won a medal at the World Team Championships but could that be about to change in the next few weeks?
