THE International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) on Wednesday held the 2019 Star Awards ceremony in Zhengzhou, capital city of Central China’s Henan Province.

China’s world champions Ma Long and Liu Shiwen received the Male and Female Star Awards, respectively.

This is the third time Ma had received the honor after 2015 and 2016. He defeated multiple nominees including his compatriot Xu Xin, Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yun-ju and Sweden’s Mattias Falck.

“Ma Long rubber stamped his reputation as arguably the greatest male player in table tennis history very early in the year,” the ITTF said on its official website.

Liu Shiwen pocketed her second Female Star Award after 2015 and resisted stiff competition from her teammates — world No. 1 Chen Meng and world No. 2 Sun Yingsha — and Japan’s Mima Ito.

“Winner of the award in 2015 in Lisbon, it has been a year of contrasts for Liu Shiwen, not an ITTF World Tour women’s singles title to her name; yet three World titles!” the ITTF wrote on its official website.

Liu said that the prize was an approval of her efforts in 2019, especially after struggling to perform in the previous two years.

(CGTN)