On a home stage in Suzhou, Ma Long lifted the weight of a decade. He defeated Fang Bo 4-2 to claim his first World Championships men’s singles title — the crown that had slipped from his reach three times before.
A rush, a reset, a ruthless close
The final opened with a jolt. Fang Bo surged to a 2-6 lead in the first game before Ma Long seized nine of the next ten points to flip it 11-7. Fang levelled by taking game two, but Ma then pulled clear in the third and fourth to move 3-1 ahead.
The title seemed decided until game five tightened. Ma held an 8-5 lead and later a championship point at 11-10, yet Fang saved it and stole the game 13-11. The arena tensed, and the wait for a coronation grew heavy.
Ma Long needed a reset, and he found it. His sixth-game performance was ruthless and precise, closing the door 11-4 and sealing a victory that had felt inevitable — until it very nearly was not.
Three semi-finals, one breakthrough
Ma Long had walked to this final carrying heavy history. In three previous World Championships he had fallen each time in the semi-finals to the same man, Wang Hao. The pattern had become an unwanted trademark.
This time his path sliced through the new guard. He dispatched Tang Peng in straight games, then overpowered 18-year-old Fan Zhendong. “It is like a dream come true,” he told reporters afterwards. “Having lost in the semi-finals at the three previous World Championships, honestly, I felt a lot of pressure to earn this title.”
With the win, Ma Long became China’s 11th world men’s singles champion, a nation that holds the title 17 times. The trophy in Suzhou did not complete his story — it unlocked the rest of it.
