Re-enter the ‘Dragon’: China´s Ma Long captures third world title

BUDAPEST: China´s Ma Long captured a third world table tennis title on Sunday, completing a dream comeback after six months on the sidelines with a knee injury.

The 30-year-old, nicknamed the ´Dragon´, defeated Sweden´s Mattias Falck 4-1 in the final.

Ma is only the third man to claim three world titles after Victor Barna, who claimed four between 1932 and 1935, and Zhuang Zedong, the 1961, 1963 and 1965 champion.

In the women´s event, Liu Shiwen downed Chinese compatriot Chen Meng 4-2.

Ma also went home with the men´s doubles gold, teaming with Wang Chuqin while China completed the clean-sweep when Wang Manyu and Sun Yingsha took the women´s doubles title.

Finals results

Men´s singles:

Ma Long (CHN) bt Mattias Falck (SWE) 4-1 (11-5, 11-7, 7-11, 11-9, 11-7)

Women´s singles:

Liu Shiwen (CHN) bt Chen Meng (CHN) 4-2 (9-11, 11-7, 11-7, 7-11, 11-0, 11-9)

Women´s doubles:

Wang Manyu/Sun Yingsha (CHN) bt Hina Hayata/Mima Ito (JPN) 4-2 (8-11, 3-11, 11-8, 11-3, 12-10, 11-8)

Men´s doubles:

Ma Long/Wang Chuqin (CHN) bt Ovidiu Ionescu/Alvaro Robles (ROM) 4-1 (11-3, 8-11, 11-7, 11-3, 11-5)