Ma Long justified his first ITTF spot by winning the Swedish Open 2011
Top ranked International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) player, Ma Long, has shown his class at the Swedish Open 2012 as he won the event. He secured his third consecutive ITTF Pro Tour title, which is another milestone in his sparkling career.
Ma Long met his countryman Wang Hao in the final match and emerged victorious in four straight sets. He won the match with the following scores: 11-7, 14-12, 11-6 and 11-7.
Long is having a fabulous season as he managed to make a final appearance 5 times out of the six tournaments held.
He appeared in the ITTF finals for the 6th time and has succeeded five times. Zhang Jike was the man who broke his winning streak but that was the only one occasion when Long fell short of a victory.
He already defeated Zhang Jike at the Harmony Open 2011 as he finished the game in his favour, after the sixth set: 11-8, 9-11, 12-10, 10-12, 11-7 and 11-5.
It was the first time that the 23-year-old defeated Wang Hao at any international tournament. Both the Chinese players had played against each other on two occasions before but Wang Hao managed to win both times.
Ma Long gave a terrific answer to his previous two losses at the hands of Hao. He won the game with a sweeping victory. Winning an ITTF event in itself is not an easy task but a clean victory on such events is pretty rare.
He mentioned after winning the final, “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”.
Jan-Ove-Waldner won the Men’s Singles title in 1997 without losing a single game and his performance was replicated by Ma Long this Sunday.
Long qualified in the semi-finals after his win over the Russian player, Krill Skachkov, as he secured an easy victory with the following scores: 11-1, 13-11, 11-7 and 16-14.
Ma Long has justified his first place at the ITTF rankings. All the Men’s Singles World Champions since 2005 were participating at the Swedish Open 2011 and yet no one could stop Ma Long.
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