DUBAI, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The world's No. 1 Liu Shiwen from China won the women's singles title of the GAC Group 2013 World Tour Grand Final of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) by beating her compatriot Ding Ning, the world No. 2 here on Saturday.
The women's final in the Hamad Bin Rashid Hall of Dubai's Al Nasr Sports Club began spectacular fierce and tight, but eventually turned in favor of Liu who cashed in 104,000 dollars prize money with a 4-2 victory.
Liu said after the match that whilst Ding was a strong competitor she was lucky as she won a number of key points in the last two sets.
Ding appeared in the middle of the match increasingly exhausted and made more and more mistakes as the match advanced. Left-handed Ding who won 52,000 dollars prize money met also more resistance than Liu in the quarterfinal and semifinal matches.
Hundreds of fans, many of them from Chinese community in Dubai, cheered the awarding ceremony.
In the men's competition China's Ma Long, the world's number one, and Kim Menseok from South Korea entered the first semifinal which will take place on Sunday. In the quarter finals, Ma was victorious over countryman Zhang Jike in a neck-and-neck battle which ended 4-3.
Asked how he turned the match in his favour, Ma said: "After I lost the first two sets as I started a bit nervous, I changed my tactics and played longer balls, which surprises Zhang a bit."
Kim, ranked 27 globally, beat Japan's Masato Shiono, ranked 46 in the world, with a 4-3 win.
The world's number two Xu Xin and 16-year-old Fan Zhendong, both from China will play on Sunday in the other semifinal.
In the men's quarterfinals on Saturday, pen-hold grip attacking player Xu kicked out Abdel-Kader Salifou from France. Despite his clear 0-4 defeat, the 103-ranked Salifo said he was nevertheless extremely happy to have reached the quarterfinals in an event which involves all best players from the GAC Group 2013 World Tour.
"Xu is a very strong player but my self-confidence never flagged. It was a great experience for me, a real step forward for me. The atmosphere in Dubai was brilliant and the fans and spectators were very supportive!" said the 24-year-old Salifou.
Fan, number five in the world, scored a 4-1 victory over his compatriot Wang Hao who is at the age of 30 and fourteen years older than Fan.
The men's semifinals and the subsequent final will take place on Sunday.