– I have played beyond my expectations. Both Hugo and Liang have better rankings than me. I have approached these matches with great humility and determination, says Ma Long through an interpreter to the organizer.
The 35-year-old has seen his best days in the ping-pong garden with six Olympic golds and 14 World Cup golds on his track record, and he has slowly fallen in the world rankings, where he is now sixth. The career has pointed downwards and rumors about the end of the career replace each other.
But it is not something that Ma Long cares about and he has shown that in the China Smash where for the first time in 63 years Beijing has a tournament in this format – compare it to the Grand Slam of tennis.
The world number three and world number four were defeated 4-0
Today, world number four Liang Jingkun was defeated 4-0 (11-8,11-7,11-8,12-10), which followed yesterday’s win against world number three Hugo Calderano also with 4-0 (11-7,11-4 ,11-7,11-7) after several crowd-pleasing duels. In five matches in Beijing, Ma Long is 17-1 in sets.
After hitting the match ball with his cobra-quick forehand, Ma Long didn’t show a dime. However, he screamed right out after going 10-8 and getting two match points. In the third set, Ma Long also took a timeout when leading 10-8 to reflect and gather himself. When there were two Chinese who met, there was no coaching.
In the final, the 19-year-old compatriot, super talent Lin Shidong (world seventh) awaits in a meeting between different generations.