Ma Long beat his Chinese rival Fan Zhendong today ©ITTF

Ma Long may no longer top the world rankings but he underlined his status as the best player in the world by beating top-ranked team-mate Fan Zhendong in the final of the International Table Tennis Federation China Open in Shenzhen.

It came on another day of home domination at the Sports Center Gymnasium as China completed their set of victories across the five singles and doubles events.

Ma, ranked sixth in the world and seeded fifth this week, lost the first set against Fan but battled back to win the next four for a 7-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-3, 14-12 success.

It repeated the result - albeit with an even more emphatic scoreline - from Ma's seven-set win over Fan in the final of last year's World Championships in Düsseldorf.

It marked Ma's 26th World Tour title - moving just one behind Belarus' all-time leader Vladimir Samsonov.

The result also made amends for Ma and Fan being among Chinese players who failed to arrive for their second-round matches at the China Open in Chengdu last year in apparent protest at the departure of their coach, Liu Guoliang.

Wang Manyu triumphed for a second successive week ©ITTF
Wang Manyu triumphed for a second successive week ©ITTF

Wang Manyu earned a second women's singles title in successive weeks elsewhere today after matching her Hong Kong victory today.

She beat world and Olympic champion Ding Ning, another Chinese team-mate, 13-11, 9-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-8, 9-11, 11-5 in the final.

Ding enjoyed better fortunes alongside Zhu Yuling in the women's doubles final.

They beat Jeon Jihee and Yang Haeun, the number three seeds from South Korea, 11-9, 11-5, 4-11, 11-5.

Fan and Lin Gaoyuan also ended the giant-killing run of Romanian-Spanish pairing Ovidiu Ionescu and Alvaro Robles by beating them 11-9, 11-4, 11-4 in the men's doubles final.

The Europeans had stunned Ma and Xu Xin in a five-set semi-final.