At last year's version of the tournament Ma, the Rio 2016 singles gold medallist, saw off Fan in the final before beating him again in December at the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals.

The top two men's players squared off once again in the final at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena in Doha as Ma claimed an 11-8, 11-8, 11-7, 5-11, 6-11, 11-4 win.

"It is my first international event of the year," he said.

"I won my first title of 2016 in Qatar as well and moved on to win more.

"I even became the Olympic champion, so I hope retaining this title in Qatar will be another good start to 2017 for me."

There was more success for China on the closing day of the competition, as Chen Meng won the women's singles and doubles titles.

First for Chen was the women's doubles event where she partnered with Wang Manyu.

The unseeded duo stunned the number one seeds Jeon Jihee and Yang Haeun of South Korea 11-4, 11-6, 4-11, 11-6 to seal the title.

Chen and Wang may have enjoyed doubles success together, but the two Chinese competitors would soon be opponents in the women's singles final.

Wang was competing in her first final in the category and impressed for a large portion of the match.

However, she was unable to prevent Chen from capturing her sixth women's singles title.

The number nine seed came through the final with a confident display, winning 12-10, 11-9, 11-6, 2-11, 11-6.

Bringing the action to a close was the men's doubles event as the Japanese top seeded pairing of Masataka Morizono and Yuya Oshima took the gold medal.

Morizono and Oshima fell behind to Sweden’s Kristian Karlsson and Mattias Karlsson, but they recovered well and claimed the next three games in a row to complete the victory 9-11, 11-5, 11-5, 11-9.

They have now won six men’s doubles titles from six appearances at ITTF World Tour events.