Before heading for Europe, Ma Long and Ma Lin were interviewed with CCTV.
Ma Long commented on his defeat at ATTC, "Generally speaking, it is pretty good if a player can win the champions in 20% of the tournaments he attends per year because of the intense competition in table tennis. In the past 2 years, I won the champions in over 50% of the tournaments I attended each year. That may explain why people are so surprised by my defeat, especially to a foreign player. But people can understand my situation."
Ma Lin, the new coach of Ma Long, hoped Ma Long to be more creative if he wants to go further. "From internal matches to major tournaments, Ma Long is very serious about every match and every stroke. I can see the essence of the best players from him. However, his seriousness may limit creative and agile performance to some extent. If he is too cautious, he will be out of creativity and will not exert all his characteristics to make it beyond imagination. He has already reached a peak after becoming the Grand Slam winner. But if he wants to reach even higher, it won't be possible unless he makes use of every single cell of his body."
To get used to the new ball, Ma Long said, "On one hand, I need to increase the strength of the stroke. The old ball is more spiny. I can change the spins and the rhythms to give my opponent a hard time, which are weakened somehow by the new ball. Now the game is more about strength. I need to make some adjustments to my playing style. On the other hand, I need to adjust my mindset. In the previous Olympic cycle, I was pretty tense and was never satisfied, and I made it. In the new Olympic cycle, if I continue like that, my body, my form and new competitions may not allow me to achieve a result as good as that of the previous cycle. Everyone may need some time to adjust. I think I need to adjust some of my mindset."