(by Steve Hopkins)
Ma Long won both of his singles matches on Tuesday as Shandong Luneng defeated Shandong Weiqiao 3-1 the Super League Finals. The other Shandong victory was the doubles win by Fang Bo and Wang Chuqin.
Like many other accolades, Ma Long is setting records – he has now won five China Super League championships. However, it was Wang Chuqin who received the 2020 Super League MVP.
The Shandong Luneng team is loaded. In addition to Ma Long who is currently third in the world, but finished with the Grand Final victory (and runner-up at the Men’s World Cup), the team also has Wang Chuqin (the fastest rising Chinese player currently No. 12 in the world), and Fan Bo (who was in the top 10 for much of 2015-17 before losing his spot on the team and falling from most international competitions).
*If this team was China’s entry into the World Championships, they’d likely still be seeded in the Top 4. Of course, in the China Super league, there are lots of great teams including Xu Xin’s Shanghai Longteng team that lost to Luneng in the Semifinals (with Wang Chuqin finishing off Xu Xin for the deciding match), and Sichuan Changhong with World No. 1 Fan Zhendong, and Shantou with Lin Gaoyuan.
