(Beijing, December 16) In the men's singles final of the "Good Luck Beijing" 2007 Volkswagen Pro Tour Grand Finals, the closing game of the four-day tournament held tonight at the Peking University Gymnasium, China's new World Cup champion Wang Hao failed to outplay veteran teammate Ma Lin with 4-2, the result being 10-12, 9-11, 12-10, 8-11, 11-5, 9-11).

Statistics show that prior to today's final match the two had competed with each other for nine times, with Ma Lin winning six and Wang Hao three. During the 2005 China Super League they met twice and Ma Lin won both with the identical score of 3-1. In the MS semifinals early this afternoon, Ma Lin and Wang Hao beat their respective opponents, Ma Long and Wang Liqin, to make the final.

The two finalists were locked in a seesaw battle from the very beginning of the game, evening the score at 1-1 through 3-3. Ma Lin broke the deadlock by leading 6-3. In front of Ma's tight defense Wang kept attacking his backhand and made it 8-9 and went on to equalize it at 10-10 despite the two set points at Ma's hand. However, due to his own faults Ma took the first set 12-10.

After a 2-2 tie in the second set Ma launched effective attacks to lead 5-2. Wang showed his powerful forehand drives to tie the score at 6-6. At 10-8 Ma reached his set points and lost no time in winning 11-9 on Wang's short net.

Opening the third set with 4-1, Wang continued to lead 5-3, 6-4, 8-6 and 10-8. After a 10-10 tie Wang scored two more points to win 12-10.

Following Ma Lin's 3-0 lead into the fourth set, the two put up a dazzling performance of exchange drives with Ma continuing to lead 9-4. At 7-10 Ma asked for time-out. Having conceded one more point, Ma succeeded with his short backhand drive which ended the fourth set 11-8.

The fifth set meant a desperate fight to Wang Hao. Despite Wang's early 5-1 lead Ma Lin began to counterattack and soon narrowed the gap to one point. Checking Ma's backhand play, Wang managed to lead 9-5 and win 11-5.

After 2-2 early in the sixth set Ma earned three consecutive points on his opponent's backhand faults. Wang spared no effort to equalize the score at 6-6 and then lead 7-6 on a net ball. Ma Lin did not slacken his efforts either, making it 8-8, 10-8 and 11-9 for the win.