The veteran defied his number 11 seeding to defeat third-ranked Lin Gaoyuan, also from China, in straight games - 12-10, 11-5, 11-5, 11-4 - at the Bao'an Stadium. 

It marks an incredible 29th ITTF World Tour men’s singles title for Ma, who moves one ahead of Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus.

After requiring a tie-breaker to take the first game, Ma moved up through the gears and dominated the remainder of the match.

Earlier, Ma, a three time world champion, successfully dealt with Japanese teenager Tomokazu Harimoto in the semi-finals.

Fourth seed Harimoto struck first in an epic 30-point game, but Ma, buoyed by the home crowd in Shenzhen, turned things around to triumph 14-16, 16-14, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7.

Lin had earlier defeated fellow Chinese player and number two seed Xu Xin in a comeback victory, 11-9, 6-11, 5-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-6.

In the women's final, number three seed Chen Meng beat fourth ranked Wang Manyu in an all-Chinese affair.

Wang, the 2018 China Open winner, fell just short of retaining her title after falling to a 11-3, 8-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-7 defeat.

The crucial game was the fourth, where Wang led 7-3 but was pegged back.

Despite Wang calling a time-out while leading 8-7, Chen kept her momentum to come back and clinch the game, before streaking away to earn the title.

Chen had earlier seen off second seed Zhu Yuling, having won an epic opening game 18-16.

She eventually went on to beat her fellow Chinese player 18-16, 5-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-9.

The only non-Chinese female player left in the action today was Japan's Mima Ito, who dumped out China's top seed Ding Ning in the quarter finals.

However, she fell at the final four stage, beaten by Wang in five games: 12-10, 12-10, 5-11, 11-7, 11-6.