Ma Long defeats World Champion Zhang Jike again at Harmony China Open – Table Tennis Update
Ma Long has won the Harmony China Open in 2009 and could not participate in the 2010 because of the injury as he made a comeback this year and has managed to win the event this year by showing his dominance over the World Champion Zhang Jike.
Ma Long was excited after the win but he also mentioned that there is still room for improvement as he stated, “I am so glad that I beat the newly-crowned World Champion here, Wasting so many game points and losing the fourth game fourth game did not affect
me; I think I am becoming more mature now, knowing how to keep my cool and get the job done, I was totally prepared for this match and I am really pleased with the victory.”
Game between the two was prolonged to six sets as Zhang could not match the lights of his country man Long who secured his first Men’s singles title victory of the year with the following scores: 11-8, 9-11, 12-10, 10-12, 11-7 and 11-5.
Long has not defeated Zhang for the first time as both the Chinese players have met on an a number of occasions which includes the English Open in 2009, Men’s Singles final at the Asian Championships in 2010, Semi final at the ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals
and now again at the Suzhou.
Zhang commented after the defeat as he said, "It's been road of recovery and trying to find myself ever since I won the Rotterdam, Ma Long knows my game too well; he took the upper hand."
Long uses a Butterfly Tenergy 05, the red side for his back hand whereas DHS Power-G PG3 blade with a DHS Skyline black for his forehand.
Long is expected to move up on the list of top six players as he is already catching up at a very young age and he is continuing his dominance over the 23-year-old Zhang as Long has defeated Jike 5 times out of 6 meetings at the World Ranking events.
After defeating the World Champion Ma Long now holds the honour of being the sixth player to win the most tittles after Vladimir Samsonov who has won 23 titles, Wan Liqin with 21 titles, Ma Lin with 20, Timo Boll with 18 and Wang Hao with 12 ITTF Pro Tour
tournaments.
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