Rio Olympics: China's Ma Long Completes Table Tennis Grand Slam, Wins Gold

China's top seed Ma Long made up for being excluded from the singles in 2012 by sweeping aside "his brother", defending champion Zhang Jike to claim the Olympic men's table tennis gold on Thursday.

The lopsided 14-12, 11-5, 11-4, 11-4 triumph gave Ma the grand slam of Olympic, world championship, world cup and world tour titles.

And it left China's table tennis team on course for a third consecutive cleansweep of gold medals at the Olympics after scooping up every title at Beijing and London.

"For me this gold is quite significant for my career because for so many years I've dreamt about winning it," said the victorious 27-year-old left-hander.

Ma added: "Jike and me both work and play together, we were competitors but we are also brothers.

"In the past he was the best, he's set a great example for me."

Zhang commented: "It was an honour to play against Long here, I'm really happy he has the grand slam."

Oscar-winning Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey was in the crowd for the preceding bronze medal match, but he'd left before Ma and Zhang walked out to do battle.

If the screen heart throb had stayed he would have appreciated that the men's final lacked the edge of the seat excitement of one of his screen hits, or for that matter the previous night's women's final in which Ding Ning edged Li Xiaoxia after seven electric games.

It was a spectacular masterclass nevertheless from Ma, who barely made a false move against a strangely subdued Zhang, the second seed.

Ma edged a spluttering opening game as the top two players on the planet sized each other up like stags waiting to lock horns.

The match ignited early in the second when Ma punched the air after his forehand smash put him 5-2 to the good.

He maintained his edge in that game to leave his teammate trailing and with work to do.

An exciting 13-stroke rally in the next set, with the ball seemingly glued to each other's bat, fell to Ma who closed the door further on Zhang's Rio dream to move one game away from the title.

With Ma leading 3-0 in the fourth game Zhang called a strategic time out to try to disrupt his compatriot's rhythm.

The ploy didn't work as a curiously error-strewn and off-key performance left him unable to mount any last ditch fightback.

Zhang conceded he hadn't turned up with his A game.

"I was trailing after the first game, and that made it difficult. I was a bit passive in the next three sets. But you can't win everything, that's the charm of sport," he said.

China has now won 26 of the 30 table tennis gold medals since the sport was introduced to the Olympics in 1988 and they will be hot favourites to claim the remaining two team titles in Rio.

For Ma, meanwhile, he will forever remember the brief but intense 37 minutes it took him to complete the hurting missing space on his CV.

And as for McConaughey, he clearly enjoyed the bronze medal match he witnessed in which Japan's Jun Mizutani got the better of Belarus' veteran former number one Vladimir Samsonov 4-1.

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