China's Ma Long (pictured) is known as "The Dragon." He can now add another spirit animal to his personal totem: the G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time, for those of you just joining us). Ma, 32, was already in the discussion, having attained the career Grand Slam (singles gold medals in the Olympics, World Championships and World Cup) when he stood atop the podium in Rio 2016. He has won the last three World Championships, the first player to win three straight since his compatriot Zhuang Zedong, 1961-1965. Today, he went and defended his gold medal in singles, outplaying his 24-year-old countryman Fan Zhendong, (11-4, 10-12, 11-8, 11-9, 3-11, 11-7). "When you play against a quality player like Fan, you must be in top form and cannot afford to make too many mistakes," said the victorious Ma. "I guess I have the experience of winning on the biggest stage, including the Olympics, and that probably gave me the edge over him today." With the win, Ma becomes the first man to defend his Olympic singles gold medal. Furthermore, he becomes only the second player after his countrywoman Zhang Yining to own enough titles for two career Grand Slams. While the day, like the decade, belonged to Ma, we have surely not seen the last of the silver medalist Fan, ranked #1 in the world. "I had my chances but just couldn’t take them today," rued Fan. "Although I could not win a gold medal, I still managed to win a silver on my Olympics debut, so that is something I can be proud of." Ma's miraculous run was nearly derailed in the semis by Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany. Ovtcharov succumed 11-9 in the seventh to Ma before consoling himself today with the bronze. His opponent Lin Yun-Ju of Chinese Taipei had four match points in game six which will long haunt him. Ovtcharov ultimately prevailed in seven games, (13-11, 9-11, 6-11, 11-4, 4-11, 15-13, 11-7). Lin, only 19, could not seem to move on from the opportunities lost. "It was really a pity I could not close out the match in the sixth game," he lamented. "I was probably too eager to win it." Ovtcharov, for his part, could hardly believe he had secured his second Olympic bronze in singles, nine years after his first. "He (Lin) had so many match points and I felt it was over for me," he marveled. "But he missed and in a blink of an eye later, I felt I had some divine help and I was so delighted to be back in the game. Sport is incredibly crazy." Crazy it is, and fortunate we will be to recount to future generations fables of the mythical DragonGOAT.

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