MACAO, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's Ma Long, newly-crowned on the world rankings, edged out German Christian Suss to secure a top-four seat in men's singles event at the ITTF (International Table Tennis Federation) Pro Tour Grand Finals here on Saturday.

    Ma, capturing the top spot for the first time last Sunday, faced tough challenge from the German rising star in the quarterfinal and was pushed to six sets (11-4, 11-7, 8-11, 11-9, 9-11, 12-10).

    "He prepared well for the game and performed well whereas I was not in my best," said Ma, who started well but struggled from the third set. "The match was really tough, especially the last four sets, where I won two of them both by just two points."

    He fought from 3-8 to lead with 9-8 in the fifth set, but finally lost it by 9-11.

    "I had a chance to win the game in five sets when I caught up from behind to lead with one point," he said, marking the loss as a lesson.

    However, Suss, ranked 31st in the world, had almost hauled the game into a seventh set by holding two set points in the sixth set.

    "I was trying my best after 0-2 in sets and had my chance to maybe reach a final set," said Suss, finally upset by 10-12. "I had two set points in the last game and two bad receipts from me."

    The 21-year-old Ma, becoming a new leader of the Chinese male team after the Beijing Olympics, said he was ready for the challenge that the new position would brought him.

    He will face teammate Zhang Jike, who ousted Olympic Champion Ma Lin in the first round before winning over South Korean Joo Se Hyuk in six sets to reach the semifinal.

    "Ma Long is my biggest headache," said Zhang of the same age. "I hope to play different both mentally and technically in tomorrow's game and hopefully win as many sets as possible."