(by Steve Hopkins)

Ma Long entered the World Cup Macao as the fourth seed, but after defeating World No. 1, No. 5, and No. 8, he has secured his third World Cup title.

Liang Jingkun was the first of the top seeds to fall, as the World No. 3 fell 4-3 to Anton Kallberg in the Round of 16.   For Kallberg, that was a solid win, but he was able to continue his run, falling to Harimoto 4-2 in the Quarters.  Fan Zhendong, World No. 2, had a tight opening round falling behind 1-3 before running off three wins in a row to salvage the win over Lin Shidong.  But the next day he fell behind again against Lin Gaoyuan – and this time he was unable to rally, falling 4-2.

For Gaoyuan, this was great tournament – defeating one of Europe’s best, Darko Jorgic in the opening round, then downing Fan in the Quarters, and topping Harimoto 4-0 in the Semifinals.  That was enough to earn a birth in the Finals, and a match against Ma Long.

Gaoyuan dominated the first half of the Final, winning 11-9, 11-9, and 11-5 to take a 3-0 lead.  But the momentum changed in the fourth game, and Ma Long dominated the remainder of the match, winning 11-8, 11-6, 11-4, and 11-8.  The game within the game is the ranking points, as players press to make their Country’s top 3 (so they can play on the Olympic Team squad), and the top 2 (so they can secure positions in the Olympic Singles event).  The winner of this event gets 1000 points.  The top 16 all get 90, so the player immediately ahead of Ma Long (Liang Jingkun) will be at 4345 in the next rankings, but Ma Long will jump up to 4885 – enough points to retake the No. 3 position.  Lin Gaoyuan, who is currently World No.8 (and the 5th Chinese player in the rankings), he will add 700 points and that may be enough to jump over two players and get to No. 6.

In Women’s Singles, World No. 1 Sun Yingsha fell behind early, but rallied to defeat World No. 2 Wang Manyu 4-3.  Miwa Harimoto upset Wang Yidi and finished in the top four (she lost to Wang Manyu 4-2).  Harimoto’s other win was 4-1 over Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz in the Quarters.

The next big event on the schedule is the Saudi Smash in May.  The tour events will be slowing down between now and the Olympics – as the attention of most athletes will be on qualifications and team preparations ahead of their travel to Paris.

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