The serve barely landed twice on the table. Opponnent barely misread teh depth and very lightly brushed it.
There is ZERO chance given the velocity of Ma Lin's serve, the very low angle the ball impacts the table, that the level of spin and friction coefficient of the table and ball would bring the ball back by itself. Just impossible.
If the impact angle is more direct (less glancing) (also means that there is less forward velocity on the ball) then you get more of the ball to "Bite" and reduce its resultant froward velocity after the bounce.
That is how the "Ghost" serve is effective. You impact the ball with very slow forward momentum, barely enough to clear the net and land close to net after first bounce. The resultant reduced forward velocity of the ball after first bounce, coupled with the new (more direct impact/less glancing) bounce angle for first bounce on other side allows the friction coefficient to make the ball lose all forward momentum and with the second and sunsequent bounces come back to the net. If the serve is high enough, the bounce is more direct and the ball can bounce once on other side and bounce back over the net.
I cannot show any equations or formulas, but my description covers the principles of how it all works.