2016 Olympic champion Ma Long reasserts his dominance on world table tennis in Qatar! Claiming his 5th world grand tour finals victory!

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Ma Long Champion of the World Tour Grand Finals - Photo by: ITTF Flickr!

In the final China's Ma Long faced recent 2016 World Cup winner and compatriot Fan Zhendong. Fan Zhendong won their previous encounter in Chinese super league so it was by no means an easy victory for the Olympic and world champion. However after the first three sets it looked to be just that, as Ma Long raced into a 3-0 lead. Fan Zhendong showed some incredible resilience bringing the score back to 3-2, saving 5 match points in the process.

Unfortunately for the 19 year old the comeback was short lived, with Ma Long taking the 6th set, winning the match 4-2 (11-5, 11-4, 11-9, 7-11, 12-14, 11-9). After his victory, in an interview with the ITTF, Ma Long had this to say:

“I’m very happy to win my fifth World Tour Grand Finals Singles title. I think I’m in quite a good form during this tournament, especially in the final, I made it through the challenge of FAN Zhendong. I played well at the start but I did not deal with crucial points well enough when I was leading at the middle of the match. But I think it’s good enough to be able to win the match.”

Men's Singles Final: Ma Long vs Fan Zhendong


Women's Singles Final: Zhu Yuling vs Han Ying


Congratulations to Ma Long and Zhu Yuling winning the 2016 World Tour Grand Finals! For all the latest news, results and videos from the Grand Finals click here. To catch up on all the latest highlighted matches from the World Tour Grand Finals visit our Media Library.

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Written by: Thomas Jeffcott
TableTennisDaily
 
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