China’s Ma Long and Liu Shiwen won the men’s and women’s singles titles of the 2016 ITTF World Tour Qatar Open at Ali Bin Hamad al-Attyia Arena yesterday.
Ma, the current world champion and world number one, raced into a two-game lead
before Fan got himself back into contention by taking the third.
It proved to be a fleeting moment of success for Fan in an eagerly anticipated clash between the world’s top two competitors as Ma went on to secure an 11-9, 11-9, 5-11, 13-11, 11-5 victory to reassert his status as the best male table tennis player in the world.
He had overcome a dangerous opponent in Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov in the last four earlier on the final day of the competition, progressing to the tournament’s showpiece contest by virtue of a 9-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-4, 11-7 success.
The result means that Long maintains his dominance over Zhendong; they have now met on seven occasions in world ranking events and Long has won all seven.
“We both played well, there might not have been many fantastic rallies, but we were both fully focused,” said Long.
“It’s only been a month since the World Championships in Kuala Lumpur, and we didn’t have much rest to recover to our best state.”
“It was a very tight match, the first three games that I won were both decided by the minimal two points”, said Long.
“It was not easy at all, the first three games were the most critical in the match.”
It was Long’s 22nd win in his 32nd second ITTF World Tour men’s singles final.
He is now the most successful of the Chinese male players as he surpasses Wang Liqin, who won on 21 titles.
He trails Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus, who has 26 titles but if you add the Grand Finals, he is only one behind.
Samsonov has won the men’s singles title at the Grand Finals on one occasion, Long has won four times; thus overall Samsonov has 27 men’s singles titles and Long is one behind.
The women’s singles crown also went the way of the top seed as China’s Liu Shiwen cruised to a comfortable 4-1 triumph over compatriot and number two seed Ding Ning.
Shiwen, who lost out to Ding in the final of the 2015 World Championships in Suzhou, never looked in doubt of claiming the title despite dropping the second game.
The 24-year-old ensured she finished top of the pile by recording an 11-8, 9-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-9 win against Ding, who was no match for her team-mate and was forced to settle for second place.
Shiwenhad been in confident form throughout the tournament and reached the final by dispatching another Chinese player in Zhu Yuling, the third seed, in straight games 11-6, 11-3, 11-8, 11-2.
Ding also enjoyed a relatively straightforward path to a meeting with Shiwenas she beat Hong Kong’s Tie Yana, seeded 14th, 11-7, 11-5, 11-6, 9-11, 11-2.
The two formidable Chinese players were involved in a thrilling women’s doubles final before they faced off for singles supremacy as they teamed up to oust Japan’s Ai Fukuhara and Mimo Ito 6-11, 11-9, 11-6, 4-11, 11-7.
“I think the match wasn’t as exciting as we had hoped
it would be, probably because this is the second consecutive World Tour event, so we were
a little exhausted,” said Shiwen.
It was the fourth time that Shiwen reached the women’s singles final in Doha and the third time she had faced Ning in the final.
“Today’s win is a confidence booster for me ahead of the Rio Games,” said Shiwen.
“We are in a crucial period of time where our internal competition is very intense to qualify for Rio,” said Shiwen.
China’s Zhang Jike and Fan Zhendong defeated Japan’s Koki Niwa and Maharu Yoshimura (11-8, 11-9, 11-7) in the men’s doubles.


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