China's Ma Long reacts during the awarding cermeony for men's single at 2009 Tournament of Champions of Table Tennis in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, Dec. 20, 2009. Ma Long beat Germany's Timo Boll 4-1 in the final and claimed the title. (Xinhua/Li Ga) Photo Gallery>>>

    CHANGSHA, Central China, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Both men's and women's titles of the 2009 table tennis Tournament of Champions went to the hosts Chinese after youngster Ma Long beat established German star Timo Boll in a five-set match and Guo Yan overcame teen teammate Liu Shiwen 4-2 in the women's final here on Sunday.

    Fourth-seeded Ma Long, who won over Olympic champion Ma Lin 4-2 to make the China vs Germany final clash, gave Boll no chance to fight back and lift the trophy with a 11-9, 11-9, 7-11, 11-9, 11-6 victory.

    The most exciting encounters came earlier in the semifinals, however, as Ma Long was throughout the match focused against a less showing-up Ma Lin, who made some magnificent strokes but also committed a number of unforced errors in the 11-8, 11-8, 5-11, 11-6, 9-11, 11-2 match.

    Ma Long could have won already in the fifth game, but thanks to a time-out and a netball Ma Lin was at least able to win a second game. It has been Ma Long's ninth win in the twelfth match against Ma Lin at international table tennis events.

    "It's important for me to win the first two games, which cost Ma Lin the confidence," said Ma Long at a post-match press conference. "I did much better than Ma Lin in the long rallies."

    "I lost the match, but it was close," commented the much elder Ma Lin. "I had my chances to win the first two games, but I didn't control them. I played on a normal level, not so high, not so low."

    In the other men's singles semifinal of the inner-German match, Boll was superior against Dimitrij Ovtcharov and had won in straight sets, 11-6, 11-7, 11-5, 11-3.

China's Guo Yan reacts during the awarding ceremony for women's single at 2009 Tournament of Champions of Table Tennis in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, Dec. 20, 2009. Guo Yan beat her teammate Liu Shiwen in the final and claimed the title. (Xinhua/Li Ga) Photo Gallery>>>

    On the women's part, the 27-year-old Guo Yan, who trashed Viktoria Pavlovich from Belarus 13-11, 11-5, 12-10, 12-10 earlier Sunday noon to make the final, prevailed in an All-Chinese match against the newly crowned World Cup holder Liu Shiwen to pocket 45,000 U.S. dollars first-place prize money and lift the trophy of Champions.

    Guo, ranked world No. 5, teed off well from the start, took a 2-0 lead in games and held on to a six-set victory after dominating most of the backhand duels. The Beijing native beat the18-year-old Liu 1-7, 11-7, 5-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-3.

    As world No. 1 Zhang Yining withdrew after getting married two months ago, Liu and Guo were seeded respectively the first and second in the ITTF class-A event, and the duo had done well with Guo losing only one set in the two-day competitions before meeting teammate Liu in the final.