Ma Long, Yuling win titles to reassert Chinese supremacy

‘I’m very happy to win my fifth Grand Finals title. I was in quite good form in this tournament’

There was no stopping Ma Long yesterday as the Chinese legend won his fifth ITTF World Tour Grand Finals, in Doha. It capped off a memorable year for Ma Long, who won his first Olympic gold in Rio in August.
The lanky, muscular 28-year-old from the northeastern province of Liaoning is a different beast compared to his other Chinese counterparts. Many say he is the best to have played the game.
His technical skills are second to none, and is renowned for his scorching serve and deceptive spin. All that was on display at the Ali Bin Hamad al-Attiyah arena yesterday, as the defending champion beat his closest-rival Fan Zhendong in an entertaining title clash 4-2 (11-5, 11-4, 11-9, 7-11, 12-14, 11-9).
This is the second consecutive year that the 19-year-old highly-rated Zhendong has lost to Ma Long in the final. Last year in Lisbon, Portugal, Ma Long needed seven games to beat his rival.
While he saved himself the strain of playing an extra game, yesterday’s final, however, reaffirmed the belief that Zhendong will be the best bet to stop the Ma Long juggernaut in coming years.
After sweeping past the first two games, Ma Long was given a stiff test by his younger opponent. Zhendong used his deceptive backhand spin shot to good effect.
But World champion Ma Long won the third game as well, before Zhendong fought valiantly. Trailing 7-10 and 11-12 in the fifth game Zhendong saved four match points and then one more in the sixth at 8-10. However, Ma Long eventually sealed the title, ironically when Zhendong’s backhand spin missed the table.
“I’m very happy to win my fifth Grand Finals title. I think was in quite good form during this tournament, especially in the final.
“Against Zhendong, I played well at the start but I did not deal with crucial points well enough, even though I was leading comfortably. But still it was good enough to be able to win the match,” said Ma Long.  
“I think it’s common for any athlete to become impatient when you reach match point and I made that mistake today. The good thing is I won the sixth game. Of course I feel it was a shame to lose the fifth game with four match points on hand.
“But in the match, I have to control my emotions as much as possible,” the champion paddler added.
Ma Long ‘s fifth title means his nearest challenger is the now-retired compatriot Wang Liqin, who won the coveted trophy three times.
This was also the 14th all Chinese men’s final, and 16th time a Chinese player has won in 21 editions of the tournament.
Unsurprisingly, the women’s title also went to China, with third seed Zhu Yuling proving to be too good for Germany’s Han Ying as she won 4-0 (11-9, 12-10, 12-10, 11-3) in a one sided final.
This was the first title of the year for the 21-year-old Yuling, who benefitted from compatriot Ding Ning’s withdrawal midway through the tournament. The Olympic champion was laid low by a high temperature and had to pull out from her quarterfinal match against Han Ying.
Yesterday, the No.11 seed Ying had no answer to Yuling’s trademark consistency as her own defensive game faltered on the big occasion.
Yuling, who started the year with three ITTF World Tour titles to her name, finally ended an 18-month wait to win another winner’s trophy.
“I was anxious because this was the first time I was playing in the final of the World Tour Grand Finals. I was eager to win. Luckily, I could stay calm at crucial points,” Yuling said.
“This triumph is mainly due to my experience of playing on the tour in the past few years.
“Winning this tournament at the end of this year is a small step for me. I hope I can play well in the next year. Now, I will spare no effort to prepare for 2020 Tokyo Olympics,” she added.
Like men, Chinese women too have ruled the tournament, with Yuling becoming the tenth player from the Asian powerhouse to win the title.
The Chinese-born Han Ying did have the consolation of becoming the first player representing a national association from outside Asia to reach the final of the women’s singles event at the Grand Finals.
There were no Chinese victories in the doubles or under-21 events, though. Hina Hiyata of Japan beat Hong Kong’s Doo Hoi Kem 4-1 in the under-21 women’s singles final before partnering Yui Hamamoto to success against Doo and Lee Ho Ching in the women’s doubles.
South Korea’s Jeoung Youngsik and Lee Sangsu beat Japan’s Masataka Morizono and Yuya Oshima 4-2 in the men’s doubles final.
Taiwan’s Liao Cheng-Ting beat
Yuto Muramatsu of Japan in four straight games to secure the men’s under 21 title.