The German's victory came on a day when the women went to Matsudaira’s compatriot Kasumi Ishikawa.

Ovtcharov, who had reached the final after recovering from a 3-1 deficit against third seed Quadri Aruna of Nigeria, had less of a comeback to make in his concluding match, but he still had to marshall his forces after Japan’s second seed won the opening game.

Spectators at the Panagyurishte Arena witnessed a highly entertaining finale, but the match went to form as the German recorded his seventh win over Matsudaira in their last eight meetings, with Ovtcharov eventually triumphing 9-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-9, 11-9.

The women’s final also went to form as Ishikawa, the top seed, required just four games to defeat the fellow Japanese player with whom she had earlier won the women’s double, Mima Ito.

The closest moment of the match came right at the start of the final as a deuce scoreline was required in the opening game.

Once Ishikawa had edged the win, Ito never really recovered and the top seed prevailed 12-10, 11-4, 11-6, 11-5 to earn a seventh women’s title on this year’s ITTF World Tour.

Earlier, Ishikawa and Ito, second seeds in the women’s doubles, had defeated fourth seeds Matilda Ekholm of Sweden and Hungary’s Georgina Pota 11-6, 8-11, 9-11, 5-11.

The men’s doubles title went to Japan’s top seeds Jin Ueda and Maharu Yoshimura, who earned victory by 11-13, 11-7, 11-4, 6-11, 11-5 over the fourth seeds from India Soumyajit Ghosh and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran.