Ma found himself 10-9 down in the opening set but won the next three points and went on to claim a comprehensive 12-10, 11-4, 11-6, 11-6 victory over the number five seed.

Ma had earlier beaten Egypt’s Omar Assar in the first round, recovering from an opening game reverse to record a 10-12, 11-9, 11-7, 11-5, 11-8 win.

"I haven’t played in a high level match for a little while - this morning was my first match," he said.

"My opponent had already played two matches so he was familiar with the venue.

"It takes some time to get used to the atmosphere; with play on just one table for the quarter-finals it was easier to concentrate."

Ma now faces a last-four clash with Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov, who recovered from an opening game deficit against Japan’s Koki Niwa to record a 10-12, 11-6, 11-3, 11-8, 11-5 success.

The most recent occasion on which Ovtcharov and Niwa had met was at the 2011 Qatar Open in Doha where the former triumphed in their second round encounter.

"It is some time since I’ve played Koki," said the number three seed.

"So it was quite interesting to see how he had improved, what changes he had made to his play, any new serves.

"I watched some videos of him and he did stay closer to the table than perhaps I expected."

Ma's compatriot Fan Zhendong is also in contention for a place in the final, beating Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chih-yuan in the last-eight.

The number two seed, making his debut at the tournament, won 4-11, 11-3, 11-7, 11-5, 14-12 to deny his opponent a semi-final spot on his 14th attempt.

Prior to the meeting, they had confronted each other on four previous occasions in world ranking events.

Fan had won all four with the most recent being two weeks ago at the semi-final stage of the Asian Championships in Pattaya, Thailand.

"Beating Chuang Chih-yuan at the Asian Championships gave me confidence for today’s match but you must treat every match as a new match," said Fan.

"Today I lost the first game; the important point was to not to panic.

"Chuang Chih-yuan is very fast, so it’s important to really top spin the ball to counteract his pace and of course you must be positive."

Fan’s next opponent is number four seed Jun Mizutani of Japan, who ended the run of Brazil’s Gustavo Tsuboi with a 11-2, 11-6, 11-5, 11-7 victory.

Action at the event is set to conclude tomorrow.


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