by Kabir Nagpal

Sun Yingsha 5-1 Wang Manyu (11-10, 11-8, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6, 11-4)

History was made here in Macao, as world no.3 Sun Yingsha secured the women’s singles title at the first-ever World Table Tennis event.

Comeback queen for this entire competition, Wang Manyu was unable to continue her streak for another day once she went down by three games for the second time in two days. In this first-ever best of nine games final, Sun was in complete control from the start of the match.

The 20-year-old Chinese made sure her service was on point and prevented her compatriot to gain any momentum by switching to play on the counter where necessary. To her credit, Wang pushed Sun to her limits and the Sudden Death in the first game itself but could not keep it up for the entire 57 minutes.

Ma Long 5-1 Wang Chuqin (11-5, 11-9, 11-4, 11-5, 10-11, 11-8)

While Sun was shining in Macao, the Dragon roared like he did in Zhengzhou last week as Ma Long conquered the gold medal in the men’s singles final against Wang Chuqin.

A four game lead saw Ma establish a measure of confidence and swagger that was clearly putting off his Chinese compatriot, however Wang surprised everyone by winning the fifth game through Sudden Death. And that gave the 20-year-old confidence to push Ma in the sixth game – but the Dragon was ready.

A smartly taken time-out slowed down the onrushing Wang Chuqin who was smelling the comeback long enough to allow Ma to win the sixth game 11-8 with his first championship point.