The Dust Is Settled! Ma Long's The Rio Olympic & Grand Slam Champion! (PHOTOS)

If you've just woken up you will be starting to see 1000's of social media posts telling you that Ma long is the 2016 Olympic Champion. The current World Cup and World Champion secured his Grand slam status by taking out Zhang Jike 4-0 on the biggest stage. Match report and photos below:
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Ma Long - Rio 2016 Olympic Champion! - Via ITTF Flickr

Ma Long won his impressive 4 straight sets victory with the scores of 14-12, 11-5, 11-4, 11-4. In the opening game Zhang Jike had a set point where he missed a close forehand flick. But Ma Long managed to hold of the former Olympic champion from getting in first on strong attacks to eventually take the first game 14-12. From then on the dragon steam trained his way to victory winning the last 3 sets game 5, 4 and 4.

The TableTennisDaily Rio Olympic poll was correct on this occasion with Ma Long having 1252 votes to Zhang Jike's 517. The TableTennisDaily twitter users were closer with 51% of followers believing Ma Long would win to Zhang JIke's 49%.

For many fans the debate between Ma Long and Zhang Jike has been settled. In an interview by the ITTF Ma Long expressed, "My performance was very strong throughout the final I was able to play my high level game". Me and Zhang Jike know one another's game so well so its not a competition of skill but more of a battle with mentality. I feel like I have improved".

Zhang Jike reflected back in the post match interview with ITTF, "For me the first set was crucial, if I had won the first set things could have turned out different. I was reacting slow and I was weak in rallies with my backhand. Ma Long's first three shots are are better than mine, congratulations to him".

Jun Mizutani took bronze for Japan posting a 4-1 win over Vladimir Samsonov. This is the first medal Japan have won at the Olympic games in the singles event.

Photos from the final day (Bronze and Gold Medal Match via ITTF Flickr

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For all the latest news, results and live streams from the Rio Olympics click here.

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Written by: Thomas Jeffcott
TableTennisDaily
 
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