Ma Long poses with his gold medal and trophy for the men's singles final at the World Table Tennis Championships in Suzhou on May 3, 2015. (Photo : Reuters)
China’s Ma Long defeated teammate Fang Bo 4-2 (11-7, 7-11, 11-4, 11-8, 11-13, 11-4) to bag the men’s singles title at this year’s World Table Tennis Championships at Suzhou on Sunday.
The 14th-ranked Fang, who bested defending champion Zhang Jike in the semifinals, managed to recover from a 2-6 down to win the fifth set but lost composure in the sixth.
Both Zhang and Fan Zhendong shared third place.
Ma, who failed to breach past the semifinals in 2009, 2011 and 2013 tournaments, proved to be a formidable opponent against Fang and won the most coveted trophy of the championship.
"It's like a dream come true. After all these days sometimes it was like a torture because I had about seven matches in six days. At the end of the day I think all the torture was worth it," said Ma.
The 26-year-old Ma is the 11th world men's singles champion from China, which has won the event 17 times with table tennis greats Zhuang Zedong and Wang Liqin tied with the most titles at three each.
Fang, who stunned spectators with his victory over No. 2 Xu Xin in the fourth round and then the twice defending champion Zhang in the semifinals, managed to steal two sets and produced some dicey moments in others while playing against Ma.
"I told Ma Long many times in Beijing that we would like to meet in the final and it came true," said Fang, who has been hounded with injuries in recent years.
"Fang played a very tough game tonight. I was fully prepared for the final since he defeated Zhang Jike in the semis. It's not easy to play against him, but I can always stay calm during the match," Ma said of the match.
Fang started with a solid first set, building a four-point lead despite playing against a pre-tournament favorite.
But the lead was short-lived. From 2-6, Ma reeled off the next nine of 10 points to take the set.
Feng again got off to a good start in the second set with the two-point lead, but Ma kept it close and evened it at 7-all before Fang made a run of his own, winning the last four points to take the set.
But Fang lost consistency and dropped the third set 4-11.
With 1-2 behind in sets and 5-7 in the fourth, Fang took a timeout in a bid to break Ma's momentum, but Ma pushed the game out of Fang's reach, winning 11-8.
Ma went up 5-2 in the fifth set, but Fang won three in a row to give himself a set point at 10-9, but failed to seal it.
At 11-11, the players made the best rally of the championship, sending shots back and forth until Fang finally made one more set point to stay in the game.
But Ma proved to be unstoppable in the sixth set after snatching a big lead.
While Zhang Jike, Ma's rival over the years, has earned a career Grand Slam of the world championships, World Cup and Olympic singles titles, Ma still needs to win an Olympic gold medal to complete his own.
"With the Rio Games one year out, anything could happen," Ma said. "I think I still have room to improve, I can be much stronger. I must try my best in training and competition. My priority is to get a ticket to Rio."
