The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has confirmed Chinese table tennis stars Ma Long and Liu Shiwen as the men's and women's year-end world number one for 2015.

Both players had a spectacular seasons last year, capped off by them being crowned ITTF Table Tennis Stars last month.

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Ma won the World Championships on home soil in Suzhou in May. He also won the 2015 World Cup title staged in Halmstad, Sweden in October.

According to Inside the Game, the 27-year-old table tennis player claimed his fourth ITTF World Tour Grand Finals crown in December by defeating his compatriot Fan Zhendong with a 12-10, 12-10, 11-13, 7-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-9 victory in the final in Lisbon.

Ma first ascended to pole position in 2010 and since then, he has been able to maintain finishing each of the past six years as the men's top-ranked player in the world.

Shiwen was also in outstanding form throughout 2015, though she failed to win against her fellow Chinese player Ding Ning in the final of the World Championships, bowing to a 7-11, 15-13, 11-7, 11-9, 9-11, 4-11, 11-8 loss. She recorvered, however, from that setback by winning the Women's Cup in Sendai, Japan in October.

The World Cup victory helped Shiwen to the year-ending women's number one spot for the third time in her career.

According to ITTF, based on the rankings, China dominates the sports having the top most three players in the world for both the men's and the women's event. There are six Chinese players in the ITTF's top ten world ranking general list.

The men's world top three players are Ma Long with 3275 ranking points, followed by Fan Zhendong with 3232 ranking points and Xu Xin with 3142 ranking points.

The women's top three players are, Liu Shiwen with 3411 ranking points, followed by Ding Ning with 3341 ranking points and Zhu Yuling with 3332 ranking points.

TagsITTF, Ma Long, Fan Zhendong, Liu Shiwen, Ding Ning