Table tennis-Captain fantastic Ma lands elusive gold

Not anymore.

On Thursday he became only the fifth man to complete the grand slam of world championship, world cup and Olympic titles after landing singles gold in Rio to cement his place among the greats of the sport.

The world number one did so by beating team mate Zhang Jike, who won gold four years ago at the London Games.

Ma had missed out on a place in the 2012 singles draw following a series of qualifying losses despite being the world number one.

Instead, he won gold in the London team event but it was individual glory he craved.

"After so many years of playing table tennis of course my dream was winning this gold so I'm very happy that I've achieved it," Ma told reporters on Thursday.

"This gold medal to me is a very good outcome from the many years I've spent on my professional career,"

The 27-year-old has held the number one spot since March 2015 and has won every major table tennis title.

He has the most ITTF World Tour singles titles and is one of two players to sweep all four medals at the Asian Championship.

With the Olympic medal, he joins Zhang, Sweden's Jan-Ove Waldner, 2000 gold medallist Kong Linghui and Chinese national team's coach Liu Guoliang in achieving the grand slam.

While he made some fans nervous by losing two sets in his fourth round match against South Korea's Jeoung Young-sik before staging a 4-2 comeback, he was ruthless in the final as he beat Zhang 4-0.

The 27-year-old, who shows off his collection of superhero action figures on his Facebook page, is the captain of the dominating Chinese national team, one of the most difficult teams to represent and whose training includes military drills.

Ma only had praise for his beaten team mate Zhang.

"Jike and I grew up together and we played together, and yes we are competitors but we are also brothers, but in sport you know that there are winners and losers," Ma said.

"In the past few years Jike was the best in the Chinese team and he set a good example for me so for many years people nicknamed us after (the astrological sign) Gemini. And today Jike actually fought very well and helped me to get this gold."